


















































































































































































































































































































































































THE 


ISLE OF MAN; 

3fts ©tstorp, Pfjpstcal, ecclesiastical, Ctbil, 

anti legentmtp. 


BY THE 

Rev. JOSEPH GEORGE CUMMING, M.A., F.G.S., 

it > ? j 

VICE-PRINCIPAL OF KING WILLIAM’S COLLEGE, CASTLETOWN. 



QUOCUNQUE JECERIS STABIT. 


LONDON: 


JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. 



MDCCCXLVIII. 


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PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, 
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 


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TO 


THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, 

THOMAS VOWLER SHORT, D.D., 

LORD BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 

My Lord, 

I avail myself with 'pleasure of the kind permission to 
dedicate this Work to you, both because it assures me of 
your still continued interest in this most ancient existing 
Diocese of the British Isles, in which you entered on the 
duties and responsibilities of the Episcopal Office, and also 
because it gives me an opportunity of expressing my own 
feelings of personal obligation to your Lordship, as well as 
those both owed and felt by every member of that Institution 
with which I am connected. Whilst many other proofs of 
your goodwill can never be forgotten, a special remembrance 
is entertained of that occasion when, through your energy 

a 2 


IV 


DEDICATION. 


and liberality, King William’s College was restored, and 
more than restored, from the ruins of a most destructive 
visitation. I am sure we have reason to thank God that He 
put it into your heart to take the lead in raising up again 
an Institution which was planned by the most loyal and 
unfortunate James seventh Earl of Derby, endowed by the 
liberality of your predecessor, both in this See and that 
which you now occupy, the pious Dr. Isaac Barrow, fostered 
by the assiduous care of the Apostolic Thomas Wilson, and 
established in its best estate by the labours and munificence 
of Bishop Ward, to be (as we hope) a perpetual nursery of 
sound learning and religion in this Isle. 

I have the honour to subscribe myself, 

My Lord, your Lordship’s 

Most humble and obedient Servant, 


JOSEPH GEORGE GUMMING. 


% 


PREFACE. 


The following work originated in the desire expressed by 
some friends, whose judgement I value, that I would place 
before the public in a popular form the substance of my 
memoirs upon the physical history of the Isle of Man, 
which have appeared in the numbers of the * Quarterly 
Journal of the Geological Society of London/ I was the 
more inclined so to do from observing that a deficiency 
existed on matters connected with natural history in all 
works upon the island hitherto published, and from find¬ 
ing that on one subject, its geology, peculiar circumstances 
enabled me to supply information not possessed by any 
other. 

The most simple and popular method of communicating 
that information, as it appeared to me, was to transfer 
from my field-book the notes of the different geological 
traverses I have made during the last seven years in 
various parts of the island. 

In doing this I could hardly pass by the spots rendered 
interesting by their connection with events in Manx civil 
and ecclesiastical history without some notice of them; and 
even the Fairy legends and Ghost stories, deeply inter- 




VI 


PREFACE. 


woven with and illustrating the character of the native 
population, obtruded themselves upon my memory, and 
seemed not altogether unworthy of being perpetuated. 
My work has thus taken a somewhat wider range than I 
had originally intended. How far I have succeeded in 
throwing interest into a subject to all but geologists I fear 
very dry, I must leave to the reader to determine. I be¬ 
lieve however that this little book will be found to contain 
a faithful summary of all that is really known of the past 
periods of the insular history, and that nothing is omitted 
which it is important a stranger should be made acquainted 
with in order that he may form a just estimate of the pre¬ 
sent condition and prospects of this island country. At 
the same time it presents a fuller itinerary than can be 
elsewhere met with; and if I have deviated in some respects 
from the route generally taken by tourists, it is to draw 
attention to some peculiar features in Manx scenery which 
a casual visitor would be almost sure to miss, and with 
which even many residents are unacquainted. 

For the geological portion of the book I myself am solely 
and altogether responsible. The memoirs previous to my 
own having been drawn up at a period when Geology was 
in its infancy, those who are acquainted with the rapid 
advance which it has made in late years will be prepared 
to expect some addition to those accounts in any work 
now published on the same subject. The maps and sec¬ 
tions which I have made as they appear in this work, com- 


PREFACE. 


Vll 


pared with those previously existing, will show that these 
additions are considerable, as also the catalogues of fossils re¬ 
corded from this locality, the number of which I have raised 
from about twenty to upwards of two hundred and fifty. 

Mr. George Wood's account of the Isle of Man, published 
in 1811, contains the earliest geological notice of it, and 
is pretty accurate as respects the older rocks. Dr. Berger 
resided here a considerable time, and in 1814 a memoir of 
his was published in the second volume of the First Series 
of the ‘ Transactions of the Geological Societyand this, 
together with a supplementary account by Professor Hens- 
low in the fifth volume of that series, furnishes a correct 
view of the extent of geological information at that time 
possessed respecting the Isle of Man. 

Dr. Macculloch in 1819, in his account of the Western 
Isles of Scotland (vol. ii. p. 516), made an addition to the 
previous notices; and an interesting memoir by Dr. Hibbert 
on the discovery of the Megaceros Hibernicus or Fossil 
Elk in the Isle of Man, will be found in the fifth number 
of the Edinburgh Journal of Science, published in 1826. 
H. R. Oswald, Esq., of Douglas, also published a pam¬ 
phlet on the stratification of alluvial deposits in 1823. 
The only other and latest notice with which I am ac¬ 
quainted, is the extremely interesting paper on the Pleisto¬ 
cene formation of the north of the island, by Hugh Strick¬ 
land, Esq., F.G.S., in the fourth volume of the Second 
Series of the Proceedings of the Geological Society, read 
November 2nd, 1843. 


PREFACE. 


viii 

The materials for a General History of the island are ap¬ 
parently copious, but in reality very scanty, as a close exa¬ 
mination will show that the majority of the numerous 
writers of later years have gone on borrowing from their 
predecessors without materially adding to the information 
previously possessed, and ofttimes without any acknowledge¬ 
ment. Tradition runs, that on the Scottish conquest of 
the island in 1270, Mary, the daughter of Reginald, last 
king but one of the race of Goddard Crovan, and lawful 
heir to the crown on the death of her uncle Magnus with¬ 
out issue, was secretly conveyed away with all the public 
deeds and charters, and that thence has arisen the dearth 
of records prior to that period. 

It is a happy circumstance that the Chronicle of Man 
and the Isles, commencing at the period of the Norman 
Conquest of England, and continued to that of the Scottish 
Conquest of Man, written by the Monks of Rushen Abbey, 
has been preserved. It seems to have been conveyed at 
this latter time to the Abbey of Furness in Lancashire, of 
which Rushen was a dependent, and ultimately to have 
been deposited in the British Museum, where it now is. 
It was abridged by Camden for his history, and was also 
published, with an English translation, by Mr. Johnstone, 
rector of Maghera-Cross, in his ‘ Antiquitates Celto-Nor- 
manicse/ printed at Copenhagen in 1786. I have used a 
copy of the latter, belonging to the library of the Univer¬ 
sity of Cambridge. I have not had an opportunity of 
closely comparing the two, though I took notes from an 



PREFACE. 


IX 


old copy of Camden in the University library; but it ap¬ 
pears from Mr. Gough’s edition in 1789 that they were 
printed from two different manuscripts, and he prefers 
that of Camden to Mr. Johnstone’s, because in the latter 
the dates have been corrected in the margin by the editor; 
but in Camden’s manuscript itself they are correct. Cam¬ 
den begins with the death of Edward the Confessor in 
1065, and Johnstone forty-seven years sooner. Camden’s 
ends a.d. 1266, the Scottish Conquest, but has been con¬ 
tinued by a later hand till 1316. Johnstone’s copy ends 
in 1376, and contains some additional matter foreign 
to the history of the island. They are no doubt both 
ancient; and I think it probable that after the removal to 
Furness a copy may have been made from that which 
Camden followed somewhere towards the close of the four¬ 
teenth century, and that this is the copy followed by John¬ 
stone. The change of hand at the date 1266 in Camden’s 
copy is extremely interesting, and seems to me an indica¬ 
tion of its genuineness. James Chaloner, Esq., Governor 
of the Isle of Man under Lord Fairfax in 1658, and Wil¬ 
liam Sacheverell, Esq., Governor from 1691 to 1696, have 
each left an account of the island of extreme interest, of 
which I have had copies by me continually in drawing up 
the civil and ecclesiastical history portion of this volume. 

Through the kindness of Mark Quayle, Esq., Clerk of 
the Rolls, I have had the use of a manuscript in his pos¬ 
session, written at the close of the civil wars by a gentle- 

a 5 


X 


PREFACE. 


man, an unknown author, who states that he retired hither 
from Wales during the troubles of that period. As I find 
the restoration of the island to Charles, son of James the 
illustrious seventh Earl of Derby, in 1660, recorded in the 
same hand as that of the rest of the manuscript, but the 
name of his successor William, in 1672, in a different hand, 
we must determine the date of this manuscript history 
between those two periods. I am inclined to think that 
this manuscript was used by Governor Sacheverell in his 
account; for he states in his introduction that “ there is 
not one who has given any tolerable account of the isle 
except Mr. James Chaloner, Governor for Lord Fairfax, 
and the gentleman (who has not been so kind as to trans¬ 
mit his name to posterity) out of whose papers I have 
drawn the ensuing essay ?’ and on comparing Mr. Quayle's 
manuscript with SacheverelPs account, I find that in some 
places they agree almost word for word. This manuscript is 
well-worthy of being published : it was seen by Mr. Feltham, 
who refers to it in his Tour through the Island, published in 
1798. In 1731, Waldron's description of the Isle of Man 
was published in folio : it is more a romance than a history, 
and abounds in some of the strangest legends of his day, 
and in vulgar abuse of the ecclesiastical rule of Bishop 
Wilson. Bishop Wilson himself drew up a short account, 
which appears in his works edited by Crutwell: it is very 
valuable as a faithful continuation of the former accounts, 
and gives a clear insight into the condition of the island in 


PREFACE. 


XI 


his episcopate of more than half a century: I have found 
it extremely useful in many points pertaining to the eccle¬ 
siastical history of the isle. 

Seacombe's 4 Memoirs of the House of Stanley/ 1783, 
borrows largely from Sacheverell in the description of the 
Isle of Man, but furnishes valuable additional information, 
and is a useful book. There is also in 12mo a history of 
the island by Rolt in 1782. 

Feltham's Tour in 1797-98 is a very faithful statement, 
and as the materials of it were collected in the various 
parishes with much personal labour, it is by far the most 
trustworthy of more modern accounts. 

Mr. Wood's account, to which allusion has already been 
made, contains much information not elsewhere to be met 
with, and may be well studied. 

We have also Quayle's ‘ Agricultural Survey of the Isle 
of Man/ drawn up for the consideration of the Board of 
Agriculture in 1794, and reprinted in 1811, and the f Report 
of His Majesty's Commissioners for the Isle of Man/ 1792, 
both of them standard books of reference, as also are Mill's 
‘ Ancient Ordinances and Statute Laws of the Isle of Man/ 
and a book entitled f Isle of Man Charities/ published in 
1831. Of Townley's Journal, Bullock's History, and 
Jeffery's Description, I can only say that perhaps it would 
have been better had they not been written. 

The latest and most complete work is that of Mr. Train, 
in two volumes 8vo, in which he has brought together, 


PREFACE. 


xii 

with much labour and research, a great variety of docu¬ 
ments bearing on our insular history, and has elucidated 
from external records the more obscure portion lying be¬ 
tween the fifth and tenth centuries, as well as checked the 
chronology of the Rushen Chronicle by comparison with 
the Norse Sagas and Irish Annals. For this portion of 
the civil history I have constantly referred to his account. 
It is to be regretted that in the later portion of his work 
he has not sufficiently distinguished between what is and 
what was, and that from his residing at a distance from 
the island he has been obliged to trust to the reports of 
persons not always the best qualified to give information : 
he has thus been unwittingly led into several grave errors. 

I do not feel responsible for the orthography of Manx 
names, which never appear to have been fixed by any defi¬ 
nite authority. The name of the island itself is variously 
written Man and Mann by the best writers and in public 
documents, in some of which we also find it written Manne. 
The first which I have adopted seems to be that in more 
general use. 

As connected with the ancient history of the island, I 
have given at page 34 the date a.d. 947 to the building of 
Castle Rushen, from an oak-beam discovered in some re¬ 
pairs in 1815, in which it occurs in relief along with cer¬ 
tain apparently very ancient characters. This is not to 
be taken as the date of the great central pile forming the 
keep, of which the architecture is of the twelfth century, 


PREFACE. 


Xlll 


with some windows of later insertion, but of that portion 
of it which forms the Sally-port, which is plainly of more 
ancient workmanship. Some doubt has been expressed as 
to the genuineness of this date from the employment of 
the Arabic numerals. Mr. Hallam, in his Introduction to 
the ‘ Literature of Europe/ vol. i. p. 150, refers to a com¬ 
mon literary tradition, ascribing the introduction of these 
numerals into Europe from the Saracens by Gerbert, near 
the close of the tenth century. It is however somewhat 
singular that we have another example to bring forward of 
the apparent employment of these figures in a very early 
record connected with the Isle of Man. In a note to the 
second canto of Sir Walter Scott's ‘ Lord of the Isles/ an 
account is given of an ancient chalice, bearing in Saxon 
black letter, very distinct, the following legend:— 

“Wf 0: Btrtjte: JHtrT): II jHcpi: Dnctptg: Be: || 
i&anar: SFttf): Utopia: JHtpimctl: || 

<£t: £pat: Ba : $bu: 10a : II Ctra: Sfilhra: 3)pa: || 
jfeett: &mr: Bt: 3r: || 93n: Otmt: II” 

proposed to be read thus: “Ufo Johannis Mich Magni 
Principis de Hr Manae Vich Liahia Magryneil et Sperat 
Domino Jhesu Dari Clementiam Illorum Opera. Fecit 
Anno Domini 993. Onili Oimi.”— Lord of the Isles, p. 
207, ed. 1833. 

Some doubt has been thrown upon the genuineness of 
this inscription, inasmuch as there is no recorded Magnus 
Prince of Man of so early a date as 993. It is clear, how- 


XIV 


PREFACE. 


ever, that a question may be raised whether this date is 
read right, for only the Arabic figures 93 occur in the in¬ 
scription, and the position of the (3Ir) leads us to presume it 
may have been misread for jftt (Nostri), or (Mille); the 
date may perhaps be 1093, at which period Magnus Bare¬ 
foot (as will be seen in p. 46, chap. 5 of this work) had 
seized upon and was actually in possession of the Land of 
Man. It has been supposed that both in the case of this 
chalice and of the carved oak-beam in Castle Rushen, the 
dates have been inserted at a later period. It may be so; 
the two circumstances are however worth recording; and 
it may be as well to note that there is some evidence that 
Arabic figures were in use before the method of calculating 
by them was understood; and it appears from a note in 
Mr. Hallam's ‘ Literature of Europe/ vol. i. p. 150, that 
there is in the British Museum a manuscript (number 343 
of the Arundel MSS.) which has been referred to the twelfth 
century by some competent judges, in which the author 
uses nine digits, but none for ten or zero, as is also the 
case in a MS. of Boethius. This I suspect is the case also 
on the chalice under consideration. 

With respect to the date on a doorway in Castle 
Rushen, mentioned in p. 62, I have learnt that it is a 
forgery. 

An interesting relic of Peel Cathedral is preserved, 
which I have not mentioned in the body of the work, viz. 
the remains of a painted window, in which, amongst other 


PREFACE. 


XV 


devices, we have connected with the arms of Man the sin¬ 
gular monogram of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury. It is a valuable addition to the links which con¬ 
nect Queen Elizabeth with this isle; the others will be 
read of at pages 59 and 95. It is in the possession of the 
family of the late Clerk of the Polls. 

My thanks are greatly due to the President and Council 
of the Geological Society for their kindness in allowing me 
the use of the lithographic stones, from which have been 
taken Plates I. and II., containing the general map of the 
island and the southern basin denuded of the tertiary for¬ 
mations. The map of the southern basin, including the 
tertiary formations; the map of Poolvash Bay; the map 
of the island in 1595, and several new sections taken on 
different traverses at several parts of the island, together 
with some slight emendations on sections previously pub¬ 
lished, will, I hope, be found desirable additions to the 
geological portion of this work. 

I am under great personal obligation to our leading 
geologists for the very kind interest they have expressed in 
the work, many of whose names appear as subscribers to 
it. Independently of their suggestions at various times in 
tracing out the geology of this area, the catalogues of 
fossils have been greatly increased by their kind inspection 
of the contents of my cabinet; in this particular I would 
mention with gratitude the names of Count Keyserling, 
the eminent States* Geologist of Russia; D. T. Ansted, 


XVI 


PREFACE. 


Esq., E.R.S. and G.S., Professor of Geology, King's Col¬ 
lege, London; E. Eorbes, Esq., F.R.S., L.S. and G.S., 
Professor of Botany in the same University, and Palseom 
tologist to the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain; and 
also of my friend John Morris, Esq., E.G.S., of Kensington. 
The late Mr. Gilbertson also, whose name is well known 
in connexion with the fossils of the Carboniferous lime¬ 
stone, did me great service in naming several species of 
Brachiopoda which I submitted to him. 

My most grateful acknowledgements are still further 
due to Professor Edward Forbes for the very valuable 
paper which he has contributed to this work on the Flora 
of this his native isle. His labours in its marine fauna 
are already well known, both from his work entitled 
f Malachologia Monensis,' and also the more extensive 
undertaking and most valuable volume, the ‘ British Star¬ 
fishes.'* 

To the Board of Northern Lights, Edinburgh, and to 
their engineer, Allan Stevenson, Esq., an expression of my 
best thanks is tendered for the very liberal manner in 
which they have placed at my disposal the whole of their 
volumes of meteorological observations made at the Point 
of Ayr and Calf of Man Lighthouse during the last twenty- 
five years. 

My thanks are due to my kind friend, George Kemp, 
Esq., M.D., of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, for a deter¬ 
mination by analysis of the per-centage of lime in the Plei- 


PREFACE. 


XVII 


stocene marls of the north and south of the island. Edward 
Delamotte, Esq., Professor of Landscape Drawing in the 
Military College, Sandhurst, has my warmest thanks for 
the extremely faithful manner in which he has expressed 
upon stone the geological features of the country, and 
greatly added to the embellishment of this work. I have 
to acknowledge also favours of the pencil from my friend 
Alfred Lemon, Esq., and my quondam pupil Mr. Hugh 
Kewley. 

My grateful acknowledgements are due to Mark Quayle, 
Esq., Clerk of the Rolls, as well for the use of the ancient 
MS. history of the island before noticed, as for much 
valuable information on legal subjects connected with the 
civil and ecclesiastical history of the isle. 

I owe similar acknowledgements to many other gentle¬ 
men holding official appointments, and also to those con¬ 
nected with the different mining companies. 

To the Venerable the Archdeacon and the Clergy gene¬ 
rally, I tender my best thanks for the readiness with which 
they have answered my inquiries on many points con¬ 
nected with the Church of the Isle of Man. 

F. C. Skrimshire, Esq., Her Majesty’s Agent for the 
Woods and Forests, has furnished me with valuable details 
of that portion of the insular revenue with which he is con¬ 
nected. To the late lamented Robert M'Guffog, Esq., I 
am indebted for the return of the income and expenditure 
in the Customs’ department. 


XV111 


PREFACE. 


Samuel Harris, junior, Esq., Tithe Agent for the Island, 
has most liberally supplied me with the details of the 
ecclesiastical revenue; and I am indebted for an account 
of the herring-fishery to Mr. James Mackenzie, officer of 
the Isle of Man fisheries. 

In throwing so much matter into the Appendix, I have 
acted on a desire to remove as much as possible dry details 
from the body of the work, so that it might read as one 
continuous narrative. The Appendix, as it has cost me 
more labour, so it will be found to contain the most im¬ 
portant information in the book. The headings of the 
chapters form a kind of general index to their contents. 
It may be desirable for those who are not interested in 
geological questions, to omit Chapters X. and XV. 

J. G. C. 

King William’s College, Isle of Man, 

May 1st, 1848, 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I. 

Ancient legend of the Isle of Man—allegorical of its early his¬ 
tory.—The interest which may be excited by the study of 
the physical history of a country.—General statement of the 
physical changes which have passed over the Isle of Man.— 
Geology not a mere speculative science, but an enunciation 
of established facts.—First view of the Isle of Man.—Erro¬ 
neous impression as to its size; how produced.—Its varying 
appearance as presented at different points of the compass. 
—This variety produced by the varied action of certain phy¬ 
sical causes.—The great natural agents which have modified 
the crust of the earth.—The records of the Palaeozoic period 
in the Isle of Man.—Great gap between it and the Tertiary, 
as there developed.—The glacial epoch.—The more recent 
physical changes and present character of the Island. 


Page 


1 


CHAPTER II. 

Douglas Bay—Panorama on entering it.—The past and present 
condition of the town.—Rambles in its neighbourhood—to 
Baldwin, Kirk Braddan, the Nunnery. 12 


CHAPTER III. 

Road from Douglas to Castletown.—Port Soderic.—Beautiful 
scenery.—Natural caves.—Intrusive greenstone.—Axis of 
elevation.—Transport of boulders.—Barrows and Cromlechs. 

—Action of drift-ice and icebergs.—The ancient condition of 
the Isle of Man as a chain of smaller islands.—Santon-burn, 
Ballalona, Fairies. 22 






XX 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER IV. 

Page 

The Sheading of Rushen.—General view of the southern area 
of the island.—The Eye of the Calf.—Spanish Head.—Port 
Erin.—Port St. Mary.—Ballasalla.—Rushen Abbey.—Castle 
Rushen.—King William’s College.—Langness.—The great 
natural features of this Sheading.—Ellipsoidal hills of the 
boulder formation.—Great drift-gravel platform.—Valleys of 
denudation.—Estuary deposits.—Notice of the agriculture of 
the island.—Hints on drainage. 32 

CHAPTER V. 

Lucian’s dialogues.—The physical constitution of Man.—The 
old Abbey-bridge.—Monks and mills.—The Abbey of Rusheu. 

—Ancient tripartite division of insular tithes.—Present mis¬ 
application of the Abbey-third.—The Abbot stone of Rushen. 

—The Creggins Hill.—Drift-gravel platform.—Skybright. 

—Malew Church.—Recent changes in the level of the land 42 

CHAPTER VI. 

The ancient Castle of Rushen—The ramparts, the moat, the 
glacis, the keep.—Well in the drift-gravel.—The Derby 
family.—Bishop Wilson.—View from the castle walls.—The 
town.—The old chapel and clock-room.—Legend of the 
Black Lady.—Hango Hill.—Limestone blocks in the boulder 
clay.—William Dhone.—Skeletons.—King William’s Col¬ 
lege.—Ancient foundation.—Advice of the Earl of Derby to 
his son.—Bishop Barrow.—The Isle of Man an ancient seat 
of learning . 58 


CHAPTER VII. 

Castletown Bay. —The Scraans.—The race-course.—Sir Isaac 
Newton.—Measures of time and space.—The measure of a 
man.—The former extent of the drift-gravel.—Time occupied 
in its erosion and in the formation of the Irish Sea.—Con¬ 
sideration of time arising from the composition of a gravel 
bed.—The circuit of Langness.—Trap-dykes, Bosses, Natural 
arches.—Round tower.—Porphyry.—St. Michael’s Isle.— 
Ruined oratory.—The old fort ... 77 






CONTENTS. 


XXI 


CHAPTER VIII. 

Page 

The port of Derbyhaven—Its great natural advantages.—Sin¬ 
gularly embraces in its circuit every rock and soil in the 
island.—The battle-field of Ronaldsway.—Great events of 
the thirteenth century.—The Scottish conquest.—Richard 
Mandeville, the Irish freebooter.—The lower limestone fossils 
of Ronaldsway.—Skillicore bosses.—Great disturbance at 
Coshnahawin.—Valley of Santon-burn.—McCulloch in error 96 

CHAPTER IX. 

View from the Brough.—Varying composition of the pleisto¬ 
cene marls.—Return to Castletown.—Notice of recent raised 
beaches at various points along the coast.—Remarkable un¬ 
dulations of the limestone beds at the Stack of Scarlet caused 
by the protrusion of basaltic rocks.—Glacial striations, groo¬ 
vings and indentations.—Mud glaciers not solving the phe¬ 
nomena.—Recent action of littoral ice at Cape Blomidon in 
the Bay of Fundy affording a clue to the true solution.— 
Probable gradual sinking of this area at the beginning of the 
glacial period . 112 


CHAPTER X. 

The trap rocks of Scarlet.—Evidences of successive volcanic 
eruptions.—Great thickness of trappean beds.—Fossils of 
the trap-tuff.—The Posidonian schist interposed in it.—Pro¬ 
bable extent and duration of the black marble quarries.—The 
economy of their working.—The Poolvash limestone.—Great 
abundance in it of the fossils of the Lower Scar limestone 
of Yorkshire.—Pleistocene beds at Strandhall.—Singular 
stalactitic concretions. 122 


CHAPTER XI. 

Strandhall.—Submerged forest.—Has the land gone down or 
the sea come up?—The great fault.—Denudations.—Ken- 
traugh.—The Giants’ Quoiting-stones.—The Runic Cross.— 
Port St. Mary.—Perwick Bay.—Coast scenery.—Spaloret 
and the Chasms.—The Samphire-gatherers.—Spanish Head. 
—Rumpy cats.—The Calf Islet and Cow Harbour.—The city 




XXII 


CONTENTS. 


of the Conies.—Bushel’s house.—Boss of gravel in the Calf 
of Man.—Icebergs again.—Diluvium.—The legend of Kitter 
and the sword Macbuin.. 139 

CHAPTER XII. 

Port Erin.—St. Catherine’s Well.—Brada Head and Copper 
Mine.—View from Grammah.—Fairy Hill, Fleshwick Bay. 

—Manx peasantry, cabins, carranes, and Sunday blankets.— 
Origin of the names Lezayre and Arbory.—The Friary.— 
Upper limit of the boulder-clay.—Grenaby.—St. Mark’s. 

—The Black Fort and Sir Walter Scott.—Granite blocks and 
Goddard Crovan’s Stone.—Structure of granite.—Bubble of 
South Barrule.—Ascent of the mountain.—Evidence of great 
cataclysmal action.—Strike of parallel mountain-chains.— 
Mines and Minerals. — Slieauwhallin.—Witchcraft.—Tyn¬ 
wald Mount.—Ancient ceremonies . 164 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Peel.—The Castle.—The Round Tower.—The Cathedral.— 

The Crypt.—Duchess of Gloucester.—Thomas Earl of War¬ 
wick.—The Guard-room.—The Moddev Dhoo.—Scenery 
about Peel.—Glen Helen.—The Rennass Waterfall.—Glen 
Darragh.—St. Trinian’s Chapel.—Coast-road from Peel to 
Kirk Michael.—Geological features.—Glen Willan.—Kirk 
Michael.—Bishop Wilson.—Discipline of the Manx Church 187 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Bishop’s Court.—The Grounds.—The Chapel.—Orry’s Head. 

—Probable continuation of limestone series in the north of 
the Island.—Formation of the Curragh.—Ballaugh.—Jurby. 

—Megaceros marl-pits.—Use of marl.—Overthrown ancient 
forests.—Ancient lakes.—Legend of Mirescogh.—Sulby Glen. 

—Snaefell.—The Bride Hills.—Admiral Thurot.—The Ayre. 

—Point Cranstal.—Grand development of Boulder series. 
—Ramsey—Ballure Glen.—Sky Hill— Port-le-Voillen.— 

Kirk Maughold.—The Holy Well—Vision of Gil Colum.— 
TheDhoon granite.—Laxey.—Orry’s Cairn.—Cloven Stones. 

—Return to Douglas. 207 





CONTENTS. 


XX111 


CHAPTER XY. 

Page 

Lithological character of the Isle of Man.—Granite Bubbles.— 
Great extent of schistose formations.—The Isle of Man ex¬ 
isting as such in the Devonian period.—No disturbance be¬ 
tween the Old Red conglomerate and Carboniferous lime¬ 
stone.—The lower and upper Limestone series.—Eruption 
of Trap rocks and interpolation in Carboniferous beds.— 
Great gap between the Carboniferous and Glacial deposits. 

■—The Glacial epoch.—Subsidence and emergence of the 
Island.—Its present condition . 237 

APPENDIX. 

A. On the name of the Isle of Man. 255 

B. The Civil History of the Island, including an account 

of the Customs, Revenue, Receipt and Expenditure, 
with a Catalogue of Governors to the present time . 257 

C. On the geographical position and extent of the Isle of 

Man, and its population at different periods. 280 

D. The Act of Settlement. 284 

E. Amount and distribution of the insular tithe. 285 

F. The Act of Surrender made by Reginald to the See of 

Rome. 289 

G. Account of James, seventh Earl of Derby, with a table 

of the genealogy of the house of Athol, so far as re¬ 
lates to the separation of the Isle of Man from the 
Derby Family. 290 

H. A detailed account of King William’s College, Castle¬ 

town . 300 

I. On the per-centage of lime in the boulder clay formation 305 

K. Mines, minerals and quarries . 306 

L. The Manx fisheries and the number of vessels of all 

kinds observed passing the Calf of Man and Point of 
Ayre in the year 1847 . 311 

M. On the Manx language. 315 

N. The Life of Bishop Thomas Wilson. 322 

O. Discipline of the Manx Church . 334 















XXIV 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

P. Catalogue of the Bishops of Sodor and Man, with the 

origin of the See and its name. 338 

Q. List of the Carboniferous fossils of the Isle of Man .. 354 

R. List of fossils of the Pleistocene period . 359 

S. On the Flora of the Isle of Man, by Professor E. Forbes 360 

T. Meteorological tables compiled from the register kept 

at the Point of Ayre and Calf of Man Lighthouses.. 364 


CORRIGENDA ET ADDENDA. 

Page 51, line 1,/or 1237 read 1265. 

Page 62, line 5, for 1103 read 1011. 

Page 149, foot-note, for Erithmum read Crithmum. 

Page 286, insert Bradden glebe 30 acres. Also note that all the parishes 
are vicarages, excepting Andreas, Ballaugh and Bride. 

Appendix Q. Since printing the list of fossils I have been able to make 
a slight addition to the catalogue of the Upper or Poolvash limestone series, 
viz. 

Pleurotomaria Eliana, De Koninck. 

Cypridina annulata, De Koninck. 

Daphnia primseva (?), M l Coy. 

I am also indebted to Professor E. Forbes for the identification of some 
fossils in my cabinet with the samples from the Irish Carboniferous series as 
figured by M‘Coy in his * Synopsis/ 

Chonetes tuberculata (the C. sarcinulata of my Catalogue). 

Pecten concavus. 

Pecten flabellulum (?). 

Platychysma Jamesii (?) (the Pleurotomaria lineata of my Cata¬ 
logue). 

Loxonema impendens. 

Orthis cylindria. 

Psammodus porosus. 

Petalodus, uncertain. 





DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES 


J Plate I. 

1. General Map of the Isle of Man, coloured geologically, with a 
Table of Signs and Colours. The outer dotted line represents 
the coast at low-water; the continuous coast-line is high-water¬ 
mark. 

2. General Section across the south-western part of the Island from 
Lhergydhoo, north-east of Peel, across the granite boss on South 
Barrule to Langness Point, south-east of Castletown. 


4 Plate II. 

Geological Map of the Limestone Basin and other parts of the 
southern district of the Island, as it is supposed they would ap¬ 
pear if denuded of the gravels, sands and clays of the Tertiary 
period. 

This Map exhibits the relations of the Carboniferous limestone to 
the Old Red sandstone formation and the great Schistose series 
of the Island, and the intersection and contortion of this area by 
igneous rocks. 


Plate III. 

In this Map we have included the Tertiary formations denuded in 
Plate II. The different shades of yellow and green represent the 
Boulder-clay, the Drift-gravel and the newest Marine and Fresh¬ 
water alluvium with raised beaches, and exhibit the formation 
of long valleys of denudation during a period of elevation of the 

b 



XXVI 


DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 


Island, and the manner in which some portions of the Tertiary 
series have been preserved by the peculiar arrangement of the 
palaeozoic rocks. 


Plate IV. 

Map of the Isle of Man in 1595, performed by Thomas Durham, as 
given in Camden’s 4 Britannia,’ Speed’s ‘ Chronicles,’ Chaloner’s 
* History,’ and Bleau’s ‘ Atlas,’ published at Amsterdam. It ex¬ 
hibits ancient lakes both in the north and south of the Island, 
which are now drained. 

Plate V. 

1. Ground Plan of a portion of Poolvash Bay, as seen at low-water 
at the mouth of the streamlet which flows from Balladoole into 
the sea. It exhibits a remarkable series of Bosses on the surface 
of the limestone, caused apparently by the intrusion of trap 
rocks, which are abundant in that neighbourhood. 

2. Section North and South magnetic in the above Plan across the 
Bosses, showing the undulations. 

J 

Plate VI. 

1. Ground Plan (coloured geologically) exhibiting the details of 
the Coast from Ronaldsway, near Derby Haven, to Coshnahawin, 
at the mouth of the Santon-bura, and marking the position of the 
faults, cracks and axes of disturbance connected with the eleva¬ 
tion of the Brough, and the formation of a series of Bosses in 
connection with trap dykes along the axes of disturbance. 

Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 to the above Plan, are intended to illustrate 
the elevation of the Brough at the mouth of the Santon-burn, 
and the manner in which the Bosses may be supposed to have 
been formed by the intrusion of trap amongst the pebbles of the 
old red conglomerate. The letters of reference, 0 P, A T, S R, 
Q K, show r the direction of the lines of section. 

Plate VII. 

Various Sections exhibiting the arrangement of the different forma¬ 
tions in the South of the Island, the intersection of the area by 


DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 


XXVII 


dykes of trap and porphyritic greenstone, and the consequent 
faults and undulations of the surface. 

1. Section from Brada Head to Coshnahawin, showing the denuda¬ 
tion of the older rocks after the formation of the great faults and 
undulations, the deposit of the tertiary gravels, sands and boulder- 
clays on the abraded surface, and the formation of alluvial basins 
by the action of the sea, during a still subsequent elevation of this 
area. 

2 & 3. Sections from the Mull Hills to Langness, and from Black 
Hill to Scarlet Head, illustrating the formation of the stratified 
trap-tuff with the included Posidonian schist. 

4. Ground Plan, showing the ramifications of trap when traversing 
beds of the Old Red conglomerate on the eastern side of Castle¬ 
town Bay. See page 84 of this work. 

5. Section near the Stack of Scarlet, exhibiting the contortion of 
the limestone and the trap-tuff by a second volcanic disturbance. 

6. Section at the Calf of Man, showing the remarkable position of a 
mass of stratified gravel and sand at an elevation of nearly 400 
feet above the present sea-level. See page 155 of the present 
work. 


v Plate VIII. 

1. Section in the North of the Island from the mountain range near 
Ballaugh to Jurby Point, showing the formation of the great 
Curragh and the freshwater marl basins, in which have been 
found the remains of the great Irish Elk. 

N.B. The arrangement of the limestone and Old Red con¬ 
glomerate is theoretical, as detailed in the body of the 
work, page 210. 

2. Section through Hango Hill and King William’s College to the 
Creggins, exhibiting the Cliff of Boulder Clay and the arrange¬ 
ment of the drift-gravel and alluvium. 

3. Section at the mouth of Glen Willan, near Kirk Michael, showing 
a valley of denudation in the drift-gravel and boulder clay, w ith 
terraces of alluvium at different levels. 

b 2 


xxviii 


ARRANGEMENT OF THE VIEWS. 


View of King William’s College from tlie Creggins, with Hango 
Hill, Castletown Bay and Langness Round Tower in the 

distance.. for Frontispiece. 

Distant View of the Island . to face 

Runic Cross and Old Font in the Churchyard of Braddan, and 

Stone Coffin-lid at Rushen Abbey .* 

7 The Creggins Hill from the Silverburn . 

v Natural arch on Langness . 

■ Coslinahawin at the mouth of the Santon-burn. 

Castletown from the Stack of Scarlet, showing the contortion 

of the Limestone beds . 

Spanish Head from the Chasms . 

Peel Cathedral from Orry’s Head . 

Portion of the Mountain range between Sulby Glen and Bishop’s 
Court, as seen from Andreas Churchyard. 


Page 


4 

20 

54 

88 

108 

124 

150 

196 

222 












LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


A. 

Adcock, W. R., Esq., Shepperton. 2 copies. 

Adcock, Mrs., Shepperton. 

Allen, W. A., Esq., Preston, Lancashire. 

Alsop, the Rev. J. R., M.A., West Houghton, Lancashire. 

Alsop, J., Esq., Linton, Kent. 

Ansted, D. T., Esq., M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in 
King’s College, London. 5 copies. 

Ashbumer, Rev. J., M.A., Linton, Kent. 

B. 

Backhouse, Major T., Castletown. 

Bacon, Capt., Seafield. 

Barker, Rev. W. G., M.A., Matlock, Derbyshire. 

Barrett, Thomas, Esq., Woodspring House, Clevedon. 

Barstowe, G., Esq., Garrow-hill, York. 

Barton, Rev. J., King William’s College, Castletown. 

Bennett, J., Esq., Ballacosnahan. 

Bentley, Dame Elizabeth Fane, Belgrave-square, London. 

Bentley, Geo. Fred. Aubre, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, Belgrave-square, 
London. 

Bentley, George M c Intosh Mahon Corry, Esq., Belgrave-square, 
London. 

Bentley, W. Fred. Mahon Corry, Esq., M.D., Doon, Roscommon. 
Black, J., Esq., M.D., F.G.S., Manchester, 

Blackburn, Rev. J., M.A., Attercliffe, Yorkshire. 

Blamire, Mrs., 35 Upper Harley-street, London. 

Bowman, Rev. Edw. Heswall, Neston, Cheshire. 

Bridson, Mrs., Ballasalla. 

Brown, Rev. Abner W., M.A., Pytchley, Northamptonshire. 

Brown, John, Esq., F.G.S., Stanway, Colchester. 

Brown, Rev. Joseph, B.A., Kirk Michael. 

Buckland, The Very Rev. W., D.D., F.R.S., L.S. & G.S., Dean of 
Westminster. 



XXX 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


Bunch, Rev. J., D.D., Fellow and Bursar of Emmanuel College, 
Cambridge. 

Butterton, Rev. G., D.D., Settle, Yorkshire. 

C. 

Cain, Mr. Robert, Ballasalla. 

Campbell, Lieut.-Col. James, Douglas. 

Campbell, Mrs., Edinburgh. 2 copies. 

Calvert, Edw., Esq., Full-street, Derby. 

Cannell, Mr. C. J., Douglas. 

Carey, Clarence, Esq., Spring Valley. 2 copies. 

Casey, William, Esq., Douglas. 

Chapman, W., Esq., Castle Lawn, Douglas. 

Charlesworth, E., Esq., F.G.S., York. 

Cholmondeley, Thomas, Esq., Castletown. 

Christian, E., Esq., Douglas. 

Christian, John, Esq., M.A., late Deemster, Milltown. 

Christian, Rev. W. B., M.A., Vicar of Lezayre. 

Clague, R. D., Esq., Comptroller of Customs, Galway. 

Clarke, Rev. J., St. Mark’s, Isle of Man. 

Clarke, Rev. W., M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Anatomy, Cambridge. 
2 copies. 

Clarke, W. N., Esq., Derby Castle. 

Clayton, Mrs. S., Linton, Kent. 

Collinson, A., Esq., New-cross, London. 

Connall, M., Esq., Mount Gawne. 

Conybeare, The Very Rev. W., M.A., F.R.S. & G.S., Dean ofLlan- 
daff. 2 copies. 

Conybeare, Rev. W. J., M.A., Principal of Collegiate Institution, 
Liverpool. 

Corlett, Thos. Arthur, Esq., Vicar-General, Ramsey. 2 copies. 
Corlett, William, Esq., Ballamona, Ballaugh. 

Corrin, Mr. Robert, Peel. 

Corrin, Rev. W., Rushen, Isle of Man. 

Cornwallis, The Right Honourable James, Earl, Linton Park, Kent. 
2 copies. 

Coulthurst, Mrs., Douglas. 

Cowle, Mrs., Andreas. 2 copies. 

Craine, J., Esq., M.D., Ramsey. 

Crye, Mr. Robert, Birkenhead. 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


XXXI 


Cubbon, Mr. R., Castletown. 

Cumming, The Rev. Professor, M.A., F.R.S. & G.S., North 
Runcton, Lynn, Norfolk. 3 copies. 

Cumming, Sir William J. Gordon, Bart., F.G.S., Altyre, Forres, N.B. 
2 copies. 

Cummings, Rev. C. J., M.A., Cheadle, Cheshire. 

D. 

Davison, H. C., Esq., King William’s College. 

Delamotte, Edward, Esq., College-terrace, Bagshot. 

De Renzy, Major G. W., Dundee, N.B. 

Dixon, Rev. Robt., M.A., Principal of King William’s College, Isle 
of Man. 3 copies. 

Dixon, Thomas II., Esq., New Boswell Court, Lincoln’s Inn. 
Douglas, Miss, Lower Halliford, Middlesex. 

Drinkwater, His Honour Deemster, Ramsey. 2 copies. 

Drury, Rev. William, Braddan. 

Duff, Adam, Esq., Blackheath, Kent. 

Duggan, Rev. William, Marown. 

Dumbell, Miss, Atholl-street. 

Dutton, the Misses, Villa Marina, Douglas. 

E. 

Egerton, Sir Philip De Malpas Grey, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., Oulton 
Park, Cheshire. 

Ellerton, John, Esq., Trinity College, Cambridge. 

Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Library of. 

Evans, Frederick J., Esq., Admiralty Survey. 

F. 

Farrant, Mrs., Jurby. 

Faught, Rev. G. S., Montpellier, Hastings. 

Fellowes, Mrs., Ballasalla. 

Fielden, Mrs. Oswald, Weston Rectory, Sliiffnall. 

Forbes, David, Esq., Norway. 

Forbes, Edward, Esq., F.R.S., L.S. & G.S., Professor of Botany, 
King’s College, London. 3 copies. 

Forbes, Rev. E., M.A., St. George’s, Douglas. 

Forbes, Mrs., Malew. 

Forster, Richard, Esq., White House, Gateshead, Durham. 3 copies. 


XXX11 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


G. 

Garvey, Rev. R., M.A., St. John’s, Wakefield. 

Gawne, Edward M., Esq., Kentraugh. 12 copies. 

Gedge, Rev. Sidney, M.A., Grammar School, Birmingham. 

Gell, James, Esq., Advocate, Castletown. 

Gelling, Rev. Samuel, Kirk Santon. 

Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. 

Gill, Rev. William, Vicar of Malew. 

Gillon, James, Esq., Douglas. 

Goldsmith, John, Esq., Douglas. 

Gooch, Rev. J. H., M.A., Heath, Halifax, 

Goodall, Miss, Portland-place, Leamington. 

Griffith, Richard, Esq., F.G.S., Dublin. 

Grisel, Mons. F. U., King William’s College. 2 copies. 

Gurney, Daniel, Esq., F.S.A.,RunetonHall, Lynn,Norfolk. 2copies. 


H. 

Hall, Mrs., Andreas. 

Hancock, Charles, Esq., 6, Crosby-square, London. 

Hanwell, Lieutenant-Colonel, Castletown. 

Harrison, Rev. Bowyer, Maughold. 

Harrison, Edward, Esq., Preston, Lancashire. 

Harrison, J. B., Esq., Douglas. 

Harrison, Rev. J. E., Jurby, Isle of Man. 

Harvey, Rev.Gilmour, King William’s College, Castletown. 2 copies. 
Haslam, W., Esq., Cooley Lodge, Kirk Michael. 

Henslow, Rev. J. S., M.A., F.R.S. & G.S., Professor of Botany, 
Cambridge. 

Heslop, Rev. R., M.A., Ilton, Ilminster. 

Hey wood, J. J., Esq., Deemster, Bemahague. 3 copies. 

Hill, Thomas, Esq., Portwood Hall, Stockport. 3 copies. 

Hollis, R. Pelham, Esq., King William’s College, Isle of Man. 
Holmes, Rev. A., Kirk Patrick, Isle of Man. 

Hope, His Excellency the Hon. Charles, Lieutenant-Governor of 
the Isle of Man. 5 copies. 

Horne, Miss, Brosely Hall, Shropshire. 

Howard, Rev. John, Kirk Onchan. 

Howard, Rev. Thomas, Ballaugh. 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


XXX1U 


Howard, W., Esq., B.A., Mathematical Lecturer, Sidney Sussex 
College, Cambridge. 

Howland, Mr. Charles, Kirk Bride. 

Humfrey, Charles, Esq., M.A., Peckham. 2 copies. 

J. 

Johnstone, Mrs., New Brighton, Cheshire. 2 copies. 

Jones, Lloyd, Esq., Neston, Cheshire. 2 copies. 

Jones, Mrs., Portland-place, Leamington. 

K. 

Kayll, Mr. George, Peel. 

Kelly, Mr. John, Ballacreggin, Rushen. 

Kelly, J., Esq., High Bailiff, Castletown. 

Kelly, Mrs., Arbory-street, Castletown. 

Kelly, Mr. R. G., Market-place, Douglas. 

Kelly, W., Esq., Douglas. 

Kelshaw, William, Esq., Thornes, Wakefield. 

Kemp, George, Esq., M.D., St. Peter’s College, Cambridge. 
Kenvig, Mr. J., Castletown. 

Kermode, Rev. William, Ramsey. 

Kershaw, T. W., Esq., Blacklieath, Kent. 

Kewley, James, Esq., Douglas. 

King William’s College, Castletown, Isle of Man, Library of. 2 copies. 

L. 

Laughton, R., Esq., M.D., Castletown. 

Law, Miss, Mona-terrace, Douglas. 

Lemon, Alfred, Esq., Athol-street, Douglas. 

Lewis, Rev. T. T., Bridstone Vicarage, Ross. 

Llewellyn, Mrs., Castletown. 

Lloyd, Mrs., the Parade, Castletown. 

Lyons, J., Esq., M.D., Ramsey. 

M. 

MTntosh, Mr., Calf of Man. 

M’Meiken, Mr. J., Castletown. 

Major, Stephen, Esq., Quorndon, Derby. 

Man, The Honourable and Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of, 
Bishop’s Court. 3 copies. 

Matthews, Frank, Esq., Glynn Moore. 


XXXIV 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


Maude, Edw. James, Esq., Knowsthorpe House, Leeds. 

Medd, John, Esq., Stockport, Cheshire. 

Menteath, Alexander Stewart, Esq., Edinburgh. 

Moore, The Venerable Joseph, M.A., Archdeacon of Man, Andreas. 
4 copies. 

Moore, Edward, Esq., Douglas. 

Morris, John, Esq., F.G.S., High-street, Kensington. 

Mosely, J. E., Esq., Douglas. 

Murchison, Sir R. I., G.C. St.S., M.A., F.R.S., G.S., L.S., &c., 
16 Belgrave-square, London. 

Murray, George M., Esq., Douglas. 

N. 

Nelson, Rev. John, Kirk Bride, Isle of Man. 

Newham, W., Esq., B.A., Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. 
Newmarsh, Rev. Henry, M.A., Hessle, Hull. 

Niclin, Miss, Kirk Onchan. 

O. 

Ogden, C. R., Esq., Attorney-General for the Isle of Man, Kirby. 
3 copies. 

Oldenbourg, Carl, Esq., Dundas-place, Manchester. 

Oldham, Edwin, Esq., Morton, Alfreton. 

Oldridge, Miss, Castletown. 

Oswald, H. R., Esq., H.K., Finch-road, Douglas. 

P. 

Palmer, Mr. John William, Peel. 

Parker, Rev. W., M.A., Linton, Kent. 

Parsons, Rev. G. S., Government Chaplain, Parade, Castletown. 
Petit, Rev. J., M.A., Shiffnall, Salop. 

Petit, L. FI., Esq., F.R.S., London. 

Phillips, Rev. A., D.D., Kenwick House, Worcester. 

Phillips, Professor John, F.R.S., F.G.S., St. Mary’s Hall, York. 
Philpot, Rev. B., M.A., F.G.S. (late Archdeacon of the Isle of Man), 
Rector of Cressingliam, Norfolk. 

Pictou, J., Esq., Douglas. 

Pickering, Mrs. C., London. 

Pierce, Mr. H., 188 Gibraltar-street, Sheffield. 

Price, John, Esq., Brierly Hall, Staffordshire. 2 copies. 

Primrose, Mr., Calf of Man. 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


XXXV 


Q. 

Quayle, Mark, Esq., Clerk of the Rolls, Castletown. 3 copies. 
Quayle, Mrs. J., Castletown. 

Quirk, G., Esq., Receiver-General, Parville. 

Quirk, James, Esq., High Bailiff of Douglas. 

Quirk, R., Esq., Douglas. 

R. 

Radcliffe, Mr. Charles, Andreas. 

Ramsey, A. C., Esq., F.G.S., Professor of Geology, University Col¬ 
lege, London, and Director of the Geological Survey of England. 
Reade, Rev. J. B., M.A., F.R.S., Stoney Vicarage, Aylesbury. 
Ready, Mrs., College-green, Castletown. 

Renouard, Rev. G., M.A., F.R.S., Swanscombe, Dartford. 2 copies. 
Richardson, Robert, Esq., Oakhill. 

Robertson, W. H., Esq., M.D., Buxton. 

Robinson, A. G., Esq., Derby Castle, Isle of Man. 

Rolfe, Rev. C., M.A., Shadoxhurst, Kent, 
llolfe, John, Esq., F.G.S., Preston. 

Rothwell, Mr., Malew-street, Castletown. 

Ruvignes, Henry de. Esq., Douglas. 

S. 

Sandilands, Rev. R. B., M.A., Croydon. 

Scrimshire, F. C., Esq., Stanley-terrace, Douglas. 

Sedgwick, the Rev. Adam, M.A., F.R.S. & G.S., Prebendary of 
Norwich, and Woodwardian Professor, Cambridge. 2 copies. 
Selkirk, Dunbar James Douglas, the Earl of, F.R.S. & G.S., St. 

Mary’s Isle, Kirkcudbright. 2 copies. 

Sheriffs, Mr., Douglas. 

Simpson, R., Esq., the Cliffe, Douglas. 

Skinner, Capt. G. M‘Gregor, Mount Murray. 

Smith, Mr. A., Castletown. 

Snell, Rev. W., Lynn, Norfolk. 

Spittall, Andrew, Esq., Laureston. 

Spurim, Thos. H., Esq., Kirk Qnchan. 

St. Asaph, The Right Rev. Thos. Vowler Short, D.D., Lord Bishop 
of. 1<2 copies. 

Stamer, Sir Loveley, Castle Lawn, Douglas. 

Stamp, Charles H., Esq., Ramsay, Huntingdonshire. 



XXXVI 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


Steele, Alexander, Esq., Crescent. 

Steward, Thomas, Esq., Lower Halliford, Middlesex. 

Stowell, Rev. J. L., M.A., Peel. 

Stowell, Miss, Rushen Abbey, Malew. 

Stowell, the Misses, Rushen Abbey. 

Strickland, H. E., Esq., M.A., F.R.S. & G.S., 4 Beaumont-street, 
Oxford. 

Sutton, Edward, Esq., Lidiate, Liverpool. 


T. 

Tandy, Edw., Esq., Kingston, Dublin. 

Tate, Rev.A.,B.D., Assistant Tutor, Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 
Teare, Mr. T., Ramsey. 2 copies. 

Teare, Thomas M., Esq., Surgeon, Ramsey. 

Thomas, Miss, Harris-terrace, Douglas. 

Trollope, Capt. C.B., R.N., Bedford. 

Trollope, Rev. J. J., Vicarage, Wigmore, Herefordshire. 

Trollope, Rev.W., Jurby. 

Tweddell, Rev. R., M.A., Halton, Cheshire. 3 copies. 


U. 

Underwood, Thomas, Esq., M.D., Castletown. 

V. 

Vallance, Henry, Esq., 20 Essex-street, Strand. 

W. 

Wakefield, Rev. Joseph, Blymhill, Salop. 

Walpole, Hon. Henry, 7 Connaught-square, Hyde-park, London. 
Wilders, Mrs. W., Castle Lawn, Douglas. 

Willis, Rev. Robert, M.A., F.R.S. & G.S., Jacksonian Professor, 
Cambridge. 

Witham, James, Esq., Cliffe House, Wakefield. 

Woodhouse, H., Esq., Christ’s College, Cambridge. 

Woods, G. A., Esq., H. K., Balladoole. 2 copies. 

Worcester, The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of. 3 copies. 

Y. 


York, Philosophical Society of. 


%f)t 3fsle of jflan. 


3fts ^tstoip, pijpsical, <2ccclestasttcal, Cftnl, 
anto tegentiarp. 


CHAPTER I. 

Ancient legend of the Isle of Man—allegorical of its early history. 
—The interest which may be excited by the study of the physical 
history of a country.—General statement of the physical changes 
which have passed over the Isle of Man.—Geology not a mere 
speculative science, but an enunciation of established facts.— 
First view of the Isle of Man.—Erroneous impression as to its 
size; how produced.—Its varying appearance as presented at 
different points of the compass.—This variety produced by the 
varied action of certain physical causes.—The great natural agents 
which have modified the crust of the earth.—The records of the 
Palaeozoic period in the Isle of Man.—Great gap between it and 
the Tertiary, as there developed.—The glacial epoch.—The more 
recent physical changes and present character of the Island. 

The earliest native history of the Isle of Man is of a 
legendary character. It was thrown into the form of a 
popular ballad in the sixteenth century*. It derives the 
name of the Island from Mannanan-beg-mac-y-Lheirr 
(little Mannanan son of Lheirr), an ancient king and 
famous necromancer, who is said to have preserved his 

* See Appendix, note A, and prefatory remarks. 

B 


2 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


kingdom from foreign invasion by the exercise of his 
magic art. At his bidding, the mountains rocked from 
their foundation, the sea boiled up from its lowest depths, 
volcanic fires, with sulphurous vapours and dense columns 
of smoke shot forth, and thick mists enveloped the Isle in 
an impenetrable mantle*. 

It may be permitted us, perhaps, to regard this strange 
legend simply as allegorical of the confusion and obscurity 
belonging to the early history of the Isle of Man, looming 
forth from a dark chaos, enveloped in thick mists of uncer¬ 
tainty and error. 

There is however a history of the Isle far more ancient 
than any to which human archives can give access, a history 
inscribed on stone in ever-enduring characters by the finger 
of Him that was, and is, and is to come, upon which such 
darkness and uncertainty does not rest: this is its physical 
history. And to those who have the patience to study, 
and some earnest desire to make themselves masters of its 
various chapters, it will certainly be found by far the most 
interesting and instructive. 

The wonders of necromancy which the legend unfolds 
have nothing to offer in comparison with the stupendous 
realities which the geologist is permitted to read out from 
the book of nature; a volume ample and highly illustrated; 
a volume, upon which when He looked on the day when it 
came forth fresh from His hands, and ere yet it was marred 
and blotted by man’s sin, its great Maker pronounced very 
good. 

The antiquary of the world turns to that chapter in its 
physical history which has reference to the Isle of Man, 
and he finds testimony given, in language which it is im¬ 
possible to misunderstand, to the fact that it has been the 
scene of mighty events ; that it too, small as it may seem, 
* Chaloner’s History of the Isle of Man, 1656, folio, p. 9. 




THE ANTIQUARY OF THE WORLD. 3 

has been (so to speak) the battle-field of the elements; 
that fire and water, heat and cold, have here met together 
and exhausted their fury, and have left behind them either 
entombed under gigantic mounds, or scattered far and 
wide over its naked surface, the tokens of their power, the 
fragments of their armour, and the skeletons of their hosts. 
He can produce evidence from this book to show that at 
one period the island heaved and tossed to and fro on a 
sea of molten lava, which poured forth over its surface 
through the rents formed during a time of convulsion, 
whilst volcanic ashes darkened the air, or buried, as in a 
living sepulchre, the inhabitants of the neighbouring seas. 
He can show that at another period vast waves desolated 
its fair surface, tearing up in their course the very rocks 
themselves, and depositing masses of granite on the highest 
mountain-tops. At one time he reads of a tropical climate 
with its luxuriant vegetation of lofty palms and towering 
tree-ferns adorning the land, whilst the sea around teemed 
with tropical life, the ever-active coral insect filling up the 
depths with its calcareous and many-coloured secretions, 
and the delicate nautilus plowing the sunny surface of the 
waters, and spreading forth its tiny sail to the genial in¬ 
fluence of the primaeval trade-wind. But time hurries on 
and hurries away all these fair seasons in its course, and 
he reads again how arctic storms ravaged the coasts of the 
lovely isle, whilst an icy ocean girt it round, lashed its 
promontories and graved its shores with the weight of ice¬ 
bergs. 

The geologist beyond doubt brings strange things to 
our ears, and he has so constant a habit of speaking dis¬ 
respectful words concerning the age of our parent Earth, 
that no wonder if many of her dutiful children are offended 
at his statements, and some should affirm that he is wilfully 
uttering what he knows to be false. 

b 2 


4 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


And yet geology, rightly viewed, is no mere speculative 
science. It has for its object to discover and, if possible, 
classify facts, and by the strictest principles of analogy, to 
trace out the cause in the effect. In this latter branch it 
may happen that an insufficiency of data shall impart a 
measure of uncertainty to the argument as to cause; never¬ 
theless these data are individual certainties in the mind of 
the geologist, and his real object (if sincerely devoted to 
his science) will henceforward be to search for phsenomena 
additional to those already possessed, and not to discard 
as useless what he is already assured of, because it will not 
fully support him in the enunciation of causes which he 
deems only probable. And it is highly desirable that all 
who read a book which has to do with the structure of the 
earth or any part of it, should first of all be assured of the 
reality of the science on which the geologist is intent, and 
the soundness of those principles on which he claims the 
assent of his hearers or readers to the statements which he 
has to set before them. 

I remember with a feeling of melancholy pleasure the 
first glimpse which I caught of the Isle of Man. It was 
from the summit of Helvellyn, which, though not the 
loftiest of the Cumberland mountains, presents views un¬ 
rivalled by any of them. By my side stood a friend, as 
ardent an admirer of nature’s beauties as myself, and who, 
in company with the devoted metropolitan of India, has 
since had opportunity enough of studying them in all the 
variety which the three presidencies of that mighty empire 
unfold, and who, almost alone and on foot, has penetrated 
into the heart of the Himalayah chain, and contemplated 
her grander features in the midst of habiliments of snow. 
The day had been one of storm and cloud, and promising 
no repayment for the toil of the ascent. All at once the 
dense canopy which rested on the mountain seemed lifted 






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FIRST VIEW OF THE ISLE. 


5 


up, and underneath it the scenery, in an atmosphere cleared 
by the recent tempest, came forth in its most impressive 
magnificence for miles around. After dwelling awhile in 
silent admiration on the sterner beauties of the nearer 
landscape, our eyes rested on the westerly sea, and there in 
the glory of a setting sun, floating as it seemed most tran¬ 
quilly on the bosom of the great deep, lay the Isle of Man. 

The peculiar form of the island* causes it to lose 
in apparent magnitude when seen from a distance (espe¬ 
cially from the sea) in a greater degree than is produced 
optically by simply receding from an object. The reason 
is this : the northern portion of the island is an almost 
plane area of nearly fifty square miles, of which the 
greater portion (and that portion more especially which is 
close upon the northern extremity of the mountain range) 
is elevated hardly more than sixty feet above the level of 
the sea. In receding therefore from the island, this area 
very soon sinks below the horizon, and the length of it is 
suddenly shortened by six miles when viewed from the 
south-east or north-west. Again, the more elevated portion 
shows very different phases as approached from different 
points. The distant northern viewf is that of an abrupt 
pile of mountain rent into chasms, which the nearer ap¬ 
proach shows us as lovely glens,—Ravensdale, Sulby Glen, 
Glenaldyn and Ballure. The western view is an extended 
mountain chain descending rapidly to the sea on the nearer 
side, more distinctly precipitous at the south-western ex¬ 
tremity, and crossed at right angles by two valleys at Port 
Erin and Peel, by which the island appears divided into 
three. The southern view exhibits a gradual slope from 

* See the Plate, “ Distant sea-view of the island as approached 
from the south-east.” 

t See the Plate, “ View of the mountain range of the Isle of Man 
from Kirk Andreas.” 


6 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


the sea-level to the highest points with no distinct valleys 
or chasms, but occupied by towns, villages, villas, cottages, 
corn-fields and pastures. The eastern view shows rocky 
cliffs and bold headlands from 300 to 400 feet high, backed 
at the distance of seven or eight miles with mountains ran¬ 
ging from 1500 to 2000 feet above the sea, between which 
and the cliffs the slope is generally easy and clothed with 
verdant pasture. Now all these various appearances of the 
same mass, as viewed from different points, are in reality due 
to certain ancient agencies which it is one of the chief objects 
of the physical history of the Isle of Man to trace out, to 
classify and describe. It may be well, for the benefit of non¬ 
geologists, to state in this place a few of the leading truths 
of geology to which constant reference must be made. 

There are evidently two prime agents always at work 
modifying the crust of the globe on which we tread, i. e. 
water and fire. The former has a constant tendency to 
lower the more elevated portions, by carrying down particle 
after particle and mechanically depositing them in the hol¬ 
lows, which would thus become ultimately filled up, and 
the whole surface of the earth be reduced to a plane; the 
latter helps to consolidate and harden into rocks* the soft 
materials so deposited, and ofttimes again by the agency of 
those elastic forces which it generates, to break up and ele¬ 
vate them into hills and mountain chains. It is also pretty 
clear that whilst some rocks are thus deposited in horizon¬ 
tal layers by the action of water, others by the action of fire 
are poured forth in a molten or semi-fluid state from the 
bowels of the earth and over its surface, or having been 
once molten but cooled down into a solid state beneath the 
earth, have afterwards been forced upwards through it. 
Thus it has become convenient to divide rocks into two 

* The term rock however is applied geologically to all the mate¬ 
rials of the earth’s crust, hard or soft. 


PALAEONTOLOGY. 


7 


classes under the names sedimentary or aqueous (that is 
formed by water), and plutonic or igneous (that is formed 
by fire); it has also been observed that many of the sedi¬ 
mentary rocks have, by the continued action of heat and 
under great pressure, been altered entirely in their character 
and condition; to these the name metamorphic is applied. 

It has also been determined that the different sedimen¬ 
tary rocks composing the surface of the earth have not been 
thrown together carelessly and without method, but there 
is a certain order so fixed and determined, that if in one 
part of the earth we find a particular rock B lying above 
another A, then in every other part we may expect to meet 
with the same arrangement, so that if we found A at the 
surface it would be useless to dig downwards with the idea 
that we should meet with B under it. And it has been 
further observed, that whilst the rock A contains in it the 
relics of a certain species of animals in great abundance, 
the rock B contains few or perhaps none of them, but has 
instead the remains of another species of animal which is 
wanting in A. Sometimes the difference between the re¬ 
mains of animals found in two contiguous rocks, A and B, 
is so great as to fix the idea upon our minds that all the 
animals which were living whilst A was being deposited 
having become extinct, or the last race of them having been 
destroyed by some sudden catastrophe, those found in B 
were entirely a new creation, called into existence by the 
Almighty Lord of life as more adapted to an altered con¬ 
dition of our globe. The study of these different remains 
(called fossils) belongs to the science called Palaeontology, 
and a classification of the different rocks composing the 
earth* s crust has been proposed in accordance with certain 
results obtained by that study. 

Thus the oldest series of sedimentary deposits have been 
grouped together as belonging to the Palaeozoic period*. 

* Old-life period. 


8 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


A newer series, containing as it would seem a new creation 
of animals, it lias been proposed to name as belonging to the 
mesozoic period*; and a still more recent class of deposits 
with another set of organized beings as of the kainozoic 
periodf. The last of these is more generally spoken of under 
the term tertiary or supercretaceous ; the last but one corre¬ 
sponds very nearly with the rocks generally classed under 
the older name secondary ; and the third includes the re¬ 
maining portion, which was formerly known under the terms 
primary and transition. 

The physical history of the Isle of Man, as read from 
the characters graven on its surface, is after all but a book 
with its middle portion torn out and its preface a good deal 
injuredj. 

The Palaeozoic period, including the Silurian, Devonian 
and Carboniferous seras, the dynasties respectively of Trilo- 
bites, Cephalaspides and Megalichthys §, is fairly enough 
set before us, as respects bulk at least, and there are many 
deeply interesting chapters in it; but the Silurian portion 
has been so much knocked about and scorched by being 
placed in contact with a heated surface, that we have a dif¬ 
ficulty in making out the division of the chapters, and can 
scarcely tell whether we have Upper Silurian only, or Lower 
Silurian only, or Upper and Lower Silurian together. 

There is however no difficulty in distinguishing the Silu¬ 
rian from the Devonian or Old Red Sandstone sera. A 
great revolution ushered in those ages when the families of 
Cephalaspis, Pterichthys, Coccosteus and the Holoptychii 
held the supreme power. The older dynasty was com- 

* Middle-life period. t Newer-life period. 

+ In explanation of this statement and the geological phaenomena 
alluded to in the remainder of this chapter, the reader may refer 
to the concluding chapter of this work, which contains a summary 
of the geology of the island. 

§ See “ The Old Red Sandstone,” by Hugh Miller. 


THE PALAEOZOIC PERIOD. 


9 


pletely upset and broken in pieces, and its hardier mem¬ 
bers, after being rudely driven hither and thither and ex¬ 
posed to continued violence, were at length left to shift for 
themselves and to take their places as they best could in 
the new order of things. 

Not such was the fate of their successors: though the 
earlier years of their empire seem indeed to have been years 
of turbulence and confusion, and there is no doubt of 
their having been a warrior race, yet the close of it, as far 
as can be gathered from Manx physical history, was of a 
peaceful character; and when a new constitution was called 
for, the sovereignty passed into the family of Megalichthys, 
either in consequence of failure in the reigning line, or be¬ 
cause the altered character of its dominions was unfitted 
for the display of its peculiar endowments. And thus the 
Carboniferous sera began. For a lengthened period affairs 
were conducted with the greatest order and precision. The 
public records, as they are handed down to us, appear to 
have been very accurately made and carefully preserved, 
and we can trace out the events almost of every year in the 
exact order of their occurrence; and we have a good deal of 
information upon the peculiar habits and occupations of 
the different grades of society in a very densely peopled 
country. It is true that at first there was a little difficulty 
in arranging the elements of the new constitution, and 
affairs wore a dark and gloomy aspect. But after a time 
all settled down quietly, the coarser materials found their 
proper level, and peace, social order and industry every¬ 
where prevailed. 

At length, from some cause or other, evidently deeply- 
seated but never satisfactorily made out, a violent emeute 
took place; the entire fabric of society was broken up, and 
a succession of disturbances so convulsed this portion of 
the empire, that amidst the confusion caused by the con- 

b 5 


10 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Aiding masses, it is with the utmost difficulty we can trace 
out the order of succession. And here the great gap in 
our history occurs, and most unfortunate is it for the pre¬ 
sent prosperity of the island that it is so. A few stray 
leaves* indicate that just at that time a deposit was being 
commenced here with an eye to generations yet unborn, 
which in other portions of the British dominions forms the 
true capital which has set agoing the manufactures supply¬ 
ing the world; the capital which has made Manchester and 
Leeds and Birmingham, and the other rapidly-increasing 
towns of the districts of coal. 

We have here no record whatever of the termination of 
the Palaeozoic period, and the whole too of the secondary 
series is wanting, as well as a large portion of the tertiary. 
We enter upon the history again merely where it just be¬ 
gins to end, and it is here also as much confused as where 
it was so suddenly broken off near the close of the Palaeo¬ 
zoic period. But it is soon evident what vast changes have 
taken place in the physical character of the country and its 
inhabitants in the interval. It was then a land of warmth 
and sunshine and teeming with the vegetation of the tro¬ 
pics, we come upon it again as a land cold, dreary and de¬ 
solate, a treeless and barren waste. But another chapter 
opens, and it speaks of this region as one of lakes and 
plains; of plains stretching out and uniting it with England, 
Ireland and Scotland, over which ranged and reigned the 
mighty Megacerosf. And then is ushered in another pe¬ 
riod, still a period of change, a period of sinkings and risings 
again, a period when noble forests of oak, elm and pine, 

* The fossil plants in the Posidonian shale of Poolvash. 

t Generally known under the term Irish Elk; it ought to have 
been called Manx Elk, or Megaceros Monensis, as the first described 
specimen was found in the Isle of Man, and the remains are abun¬ 
dant for the size of the island. 


THE RECENT PERIOD. 


11 


clothed the mountain sides and adorned the valleys and 
plains, and Mona again became an island. And last of all 
comes our own sera, in which the woods have disappeared, 
the lakes one after another have been drained*, and smil¬ 
ing corn-fields occupy in their stead, and the reign of the 
beasts of the field and fishes of the sea has given way to 
that of him who was created and made to have dominion 
over all. 

* See Plate IV., Map of tlie Isle of Man in 1595, performed by 
Thomas Durham, as given in Camden’s ‘Britannia’ and in Speed’s 
‘ Chronicles.’ 






12 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


CHAPTER II. 

Douglas Bay—Panorama on entering it.—The past and present 
condition of the town.—Rambles in its neighbourhood—to Bald¬ 
win, Kirk Braddan, the Nunnery. 

What a magnificent bay is this of Douglas ! how deep the 
azure which rests upon its waters ! Few scenes can be more 
impressive than that presented to the stranger on his arrival 
by steamer on a clear calm summer’s eve, either from 
Liverpool or (the more natural communication) Fleetwood. 
Thirteen or fourteen hours* since he may perhaps have 
been in London, or he may have just fled from the smoke 
and din of Birmingham, or Manchester, or Leeds. 

The shape of the bay he will observe to be nearly that 
presented by the concave arc of the moon when three 
days old. The southern horn (the left-hand one to him 
at entering) runs out into the sea as a mass of clay 
schist dipping inland at a high angle, and surmounted by 
the light-house. A little further in, near and under the 
battery t, he may observe some violent contortions of the 
strata, and between that and Harold Tower perhaps his 
eye may catch a sight of a small patch of gravel a few feet 
below the level of the battery; this is a remnant of the 

* A person leaving the Isle of Man at ten o’clock in the morning 
will ordinarily be in Liverpool in time for the express train which 
reaches London at eleven o’clock the same evening. 

t This battery was erected in 1813, at which period also was re¬ 
moved one of the most interesting relics of antiquity of which the 
island had to boast, the ancient Pictish tower which stood at the 
bight of the Pollock Rock, the former entrance to the harbour. 
See Appendix, Note B. 


DOUGLAS BAY AND TOWN. 


13 


northern drift, a very ancient though not the last upraised 
sea-beach. In the south-western area rests the tower of 
refuge*, an extremely picturesque object, and in case of 
shipwreck on the dangerous reef (the Conaster rock, or St. 
Mary’s Isle) on which it stands, a precious point of safety 
for the mariner. The headland at the northern extremity 
of the bay is Banks's Howe, a favourite resort of the Dou¬ 
glas people when an autumnal sun has mellowed the heather 
on the mountain sides. The distance between the extreme 
horns of the bay will be about two miles. 

A continuation of the bold coast two miles north-east of 
Banks's Howe (interrupted only by the sweet little haven 
of Growdale, where a streamlet comes tumbling down from 
the White Bridge near Onchan) terminates the scene with 
Clay Head. 

In the foreground we have the town of Douglas stretch¬ 
ing along the south-western edge of the bay. The old 
town, in the form of a triangle, occupies the low ground at 
the mouth of the river on the level of the last raised sea- 
beach, the pierf (with its light-house) and St. Barnabas 
church being the most striking objects. The more elevated 
localities have in later years been seized upon by the better 
classes for their habitations and for the lodging-houses of 
strangers, and a new town has thus rapidly grown up of a 
more respectable character, and this from its position being 
more conspicuous than the more ancient one, happily im¬ 
presses the visitor on his approach with a very favourable 
opinion of the spot. The Odd Fellows' Hall, St. George's J 

* Erected in 1832, mainly through the exertions of Sir William 
Hillary. 

t The first stone of the pier was laid on July 24, 1793, by John 
Duke of Athol. Its length is 520 feet, and breadth 40 feet. The 
cost of erection was ^22,000. 

X Built in 1780. 


14 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Church, and the House of Industry*, stand out as the more 
prominent objects in the upper town. Along the shore to 
the north we have the new church of St. Thomas t, the 
only modern building on the island which can pretend to 
an ecclesiastical character. 

Above this a fine terrace of the northern drift is being 
rapidly occupied by a superior class of residences, com¬ 
manding a magnificent view of the bay and the environs 
of Douglas. Rather more to the north we have Villa Ma¬ 
rina, and then as the most conspicuous object almost in 
the centre of the crescent of the bay, in a line direct from 
the light-house through the tower of refuge, stands out 
Castle Mona, formerly the residence of John Duke of 
Athol, whither he removed from Port-e-Chee, but now con¬ 
verted into a first-rate hotel. A little further northwards 
the continental traveller is reminded strongly of the Rhine 
castles, by the castellated and highly picturesque pile on 
the Falcon Cliff. 

Perhaps a well-practised eye may perceive a few yards 
to the northward of the Falcon Cliff that the claret-colour¬ 
ed schist, on which the castle stands, dips at a high angle 
nearly south by east, and has but a very thin capping of 
the drift gravel. The series is well-developed in a quarry 
hard by, where the road turns up the hill to Kirk Onchan, 
and shows, as contrasted with the dip of these schists on 
Douglas Head, that the town lies in a synclinal depression. 
Strathallan Crescent forms an interesting feature in this 
portion of the bay, where the shore begins to curve to the 
north-eastward; and in the same division of the panorama 
we can include Derby Castle, though standing a little apart 
within its own grounds to the eastward. 

The upper portion of the same field of view will take in 


* Built in 1837. 


t Commenced in 1846. 


KIRK ONCHAN. 


15 


a pretty fragment of the village of Onchan* perched on 
the rise of the hill, with its heavenward pointing church 
spire relieved against a richly-wooded background,—a com¬ 
bination not too frequently falling under the eye of the 
painter in the Isle of Man, where trees are few and far be¬ 
tween. 

Such is the foreground in the panorama of Douglas Bay, 
owing much perhaps of its present attraction as a watering 
place to the hand of manf, but still most truly enchanting 
in its own undecked naturalness. In fact, the mind of 
him who is a true admirer of the beauties of Creation re¬ 
verts at once to the time, scarcely more than a century and 
a half ago, when Douglas, a fishing-hamlet in the parish 
of Kirk Braddan, sent up on a still summer Sabbath-eve 
its curling wreaths of turf-smoke from the little group of 
fishers^ cots which nestled in the western angle of the bay, 
whilst fathom upon fathom of herring nets lay drying 
around upon the sand-hills, since occupied by a ducal palace 
and aristocratic mansions, and he will ever love mentally to 
linger on such a scene. 

Well! let him then even now lift up his eyes to the 
further off landscape in the distant mountain chain. Let 
us suppose the station a mile or two out at sea, so as to 
permit the line of view clear over Douglas Head and the 
nearer eminences. *T is evening; stretching away to the 
right and left, from seven to eight miles inland, as far as 
the eye can reach in a line almost parallel to the south¬ 
eastern coast, the glorious panorama of mountain peaks 
stands forth in clear relief against the western sky. We 
have said peaks, but their outline generally speaking is too 
soft and rounded fairly to claim that term{. A mellowed 

* Dedicated in honour of St. Concha, the mother of St. Patrick. 

t See Note C, Appendix. 

I A good idea of their form may be gained from the “ Distant 
sea-view of the Isle of Man as approached from the south-east.” 


16 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


light streams through the gorges and deeper central valley 
which cleaves the island in twain from Douglas to Peel. 
The dark heather on South Barrule and Bein-y-Pliot, the 
longer we gaze looks darker and darker still. The loftier 
mountain-range, though continued onwards with a gradual 
depression towards Brada Head, the Mull Hills, and the 
Calf of Man, seems to terminate in the south-west with 
Cronck-na-Irey-Lhaa (the hill of the rising day), reaching 
1400 feet above the sea-level, its eastern face smoothed 
down and every cavity apparently filled up. A glance at 
the geological map* will show that the tertiary deposits, 
here consisting of boulders, sand and clay of the pleisto¬ 
cene age, stretch far up the mountain side. They might 
perhaps under the term diluvium be continued to the very 
summit, for even to that height we find boulders of granite 
evidently detached from the boss on the eastern side of 
South Barrule, and rolled forward in a south-westerly direc¬ 
tion. The western face of Irey-na-Lhaa descends almost 
perpendicularly into the Western Sea. It is the leeward 
side, so to speak, of the mountain barrier opposed to the 
drifting current from the north-east. 

Carrying the eye onward towards the north, the next 
summit is South Barrule (the top of the Apple), a noble 
mountain as seen from any side, the King of the South, 
rising 1545 feet above the sea-level. The intervention of 
Mount Murray takes off somewhat from its grandeur as 
seen on entering Douglas Bay. The same may be said 
perhaps of Slieuwhallin (the Hill of the Whelp), the next 
mountain to the right descending (at its northern extre¬ 
mity) with extreme abruptness into the vale of St. John. 
The northern slope of that valley ascends far more gently 
to the summit of Greebah, which presents to the southern 
view the appearance of a truncated pyramid. 

The ridge continues now with a slight depression towards 
* Plates I. and III. 


INJEBRECK. 


17 


the north-east, affording a pass across the chain from 
Baldwin to the Rennass Valley. And now further to the 
north, having passed another prominent point, we can just 
scan the head of the Baldwin valley in the deep recess of 
Injebreck, a lovely wooded retreat on a hot summer’s day, 
where the clear dew-drops come trickling down in a silver 
thread from the grassy slope betwixt Garraghan and Snae- 
fell to form the Glas (the grey water), which rolling on¬ 
wards through the Baldwin valley and joining the Dhoo 
(the black water)* near Port-e-Chee (the Harbour of 
Peace), forms with it the Douglas river from which the 
town takes its name. 

Standing forward from the more regular chain of moun¬ 
tains, we have next Garraghan and Bein-y-Phot, whose 
elevation above the sea is respectively 1520 and 1750 feet. 
Then falling back upon the line to the north is the monarch 
of Mona, Sneafell, 2004 feet in height; and the ridge is 
further extended north-eastward, terminating in the conical 
point of North Barrule, which frowns down upon Ramsey, 
the metropolis of the north, and sends forth at its base 
a series of lesser ridges on every side, like the gnarled 
and twisted roots of some gigantic old oak. In the ravines 
thus formed are the sylvan retreats of Ballure and Glen- 
aldyn. Maughold Head, rough and precipitous, forms the 
extreme north-eastern termination of the great mountain 
chain, as seen from the entrance to Douglas Bay, and shuts 
up the further view of the island in that direction. It 
should however be rather considered physically as a more 
salient point of a secondary chain to the south-eastward of 
the former principal one. 

It is a hard and ungracious task to advise people in 
general of a line of tour in such a country as Mona’s fair 
isle. There are so many various points to be considered 
* It rises in the turf bogs of the central insular valley. 


18 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


in the matter; the time at the disposal of the visitor is a 
prime consideration; regard must he had to the different 
energies of the invalid travelling in his easy carriage in 
search of health amidst the valleys, and the able-bodied 
pedestrian who is prepared to scale precipices and inhale 
the keen air which plays around the mountain-top. Regard 
must be had to the antiquarian intent on Runic monu¬ 
ments, Kist-vaens and Cromlechs, ruined churches, cathe¬ 
drals, monasteries and castles; whilst the naturalist will 
feel anxious to have his attention directed to those lo¬ 
calities which present the best specimens of the objects 
on which his mind happens to be just now particularly 
engaged. 

But in writing for the geological tourist, we need not 
hesitate in advising the course he ought to take, whether 
it be by days or weeks that he is to reckon his stay. He 
must go almost at once to the south of the island, where 
he will find the whole physical history of the country de¬ 
veloped in the geological study of the Sheading of Rushen. 
Yet, if he can spare a day, he may devote it first to the 
neighbourhood of Douglas, in an examination of the valleys 
in which flow the streams originating the Douglas river. 
He will there (especially in Spring valley) fix his attention 
on the terraces of drift-gravel, the indication of successive 
elevation of the area of the ancient sea-bottom of this 
neighbourhood. He will perceive that in former times an 
estuary ran up into the country to Port-e-Chee (the Haven 
of Peace), and that it has been drained at a period, geolo¬ 
gically recent, by an elevation which is probably the last 
affecting materially the physical condition of the island; 
and he may find some reason perhaps for the supposition, 
that a movement, then commenced, has been quietly pro¬ 
ceeding even down to the present time. He may even 
extend his day's excursion beyond Port-e-Chee, a few miles 




RUNIC MONUMENTS. 


19 


into the Baldwin valley, and perhaps reach Injebreck*; 
and all the way he will be struck with the masses of gravel, 
sand and clay through which the streamlets from the 
mountain's dashing and foaming have cut their way, and 
formed many a romantic glen which he will refer in great 
part to the period of the boulder-clay deposit. And the 
general tourist, who cares nothing for the geological ques¬ 
tions involved, may well accompany him in this day's 
ramble, for he will pass through scenery which for quiet 
and secluded loveliness is hardly to be equalled anywhere 
in Mona. And why should he not include in it the Kirk 
yard of Braddan f ? sweet shaded holy spot! How do pensive 
solemn thoughts steal over us there; and scenes of bygone 
times flit rapidly before our imagination as we sit upon the 
western stile, itself an ancient, misplaced and perverted 
Runic monument! Would that it were the only misplaced 
holy stone in this churchyard, but, proh pudor ! in the 
midst of it, under the open sky, is the good old square 
font, plain and simple, 't is true, but yet of honest stone , 
and hallowed to many a generation, now crumbling to dust 
in the yard around. It was turned out of the church J to 
make room for a pew not many years ago. A small basin 

* The general tourist should be advised to visit this spot, and he 
may from Injebreck easily ascend Bein-y-Phot and Sneafell. 

t St. Brandon (in honour of whom the church was dedicated) is 
said to have been an Abbot and Confessor, who died a recluse in the 
Isle of Arran towards the close of the eleventh century. In the year 
a.d. 1292, Mark, Bishop of Sodor, held here a synod, in which were 
enacted thirty-six canons for the government of the church. The 
present church of Braddan was built in 1773. 

X There is scarcely a church on the island which retains its an¬ 
cient font within the church. The fonts have been ejected for the 
most part within the last twenty years, and appropriated to various 
nameless uses. Mostly they are cut out of insular granite blocks 
without any attempt at ornament, and probably they are very old. 


20 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


upon a wooden pillar within the altar rails is intended to 
do duty in its stead. 

Above this old square font is one of the finest Runic 
monuments of the island, its length 5 feet 4 inches, the 
shaft adorned with figures of dragons or monstrous animals 
intertwined together. Along its edge is an inscription* 
in Runes, the interpretation of which has greatly puzzled 
antiquarians. If we look about we shall find two other 
Runic monuments, one leaning against the church tower 
on the southern side, the other built in as a lintel to one 
of the windows of the tower. But we must away. 

Let us take the road which leads through the richly- 
wooded grounds of Kirby and Ballaughton, and coming 
out upon Spring Valley, we may saunter leisurely down 
the streamlet which falls into the Douglas river below the 
Nunnery. Let us look upwards now to those embattled 
walls which perch on the summit of the rock, or peep forth 
from the denser foliage which mantles round its base. 
These are not the very identical walls in which the vene¬ 
rable Prioress of Douglas used in the olden time to hold 
her baronial courts, exercising a temporal as well as a 
spiritual discipline over her own vassals. They, for the most 

* It was copied for Gibson’s Camden upwards of a hundred years 
ago. The best figure of this cross is given in the Archaeological 
Journal of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 
vol. ii. p. 75. The two readings which have met with the greatest 
favour seem to be those of Mr. Beauford and Mr. Just; the former 
reads it thus :—“ Durlifr nsaci risti krus dono aftfiac sunfin frudur 
sun safrsagand translates it—“ For Admiral Durlif this cross is 
erected, by the son of his brother (the son of) Safrsag.” 

The latter reads it —“ Thurlior : Niaki : Rasti : Krus : Thono : 
Aft : Fiak : Sini : Aruth : Ur : Sun : Taors and translates it— 

“Thurlior Niaki raised this cross for his-Aruth ur, son of Jaor.” 

We have given a view of the Runic cross and the ancient square font 
as they stand together in the Auld Kirk Yard. 






































































































































































































































































































THE NUNNERY. 


21 


part, have long since passed away; and it would be difficult 
to trace a vestige of monumental stone (even in the eastern 
wing, which has a pretension to greater antiquity) which 
we might venture to pronounce as fashioned and wrought 
to take its place as part of that ancient house which St. 
Bridget is said to have founded here in the sixth century*. 
But still there is an impressiveness about the building, and 
we can hardly help feeling a desire to know more of its 
earlier history, and to trace its influence, if possible, upon 
a rude people in a troublous age, and observe how it stood 
forth as a home of civilization and of true religion, a real 
Port-e-Chee, a refuge to the weak and peaceful in times 
when every man’s hand was against his fellow. 

* St. Bridget was born in the year 453, and at the age of fourteen 
years received the veil at the hands of St. Patrick. In 484 she 
founded the nunnery of Kildare; about the same time a monastery 
was founded under the same roof; and this illustrious and imma¬ 
culate lady presided both over the nuns and the monks till the time 
of her death in the year 523.— Wood’s History of the Isle of Man, 
p. 113. 


22 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


CHAPTER III. 

Road from Douglas to Castletown.—Port Soderic.—Beautiful 
scenery.— Natural caves.—Intrusive greenstone.—Axis of ele¬ 
vation.—Transport of boulders.—Barrows and Cromlechs.— 
Action of drift-ice and icebergs.—The ancient condition of the 
Isle of Man as a chain of smaller islands.—Santon-burn, Balla- 
lona. Fairies. 

In proceeding from Douglas to Castletown, we have the 
choice of two routes, one lying along the eastern coast by 
Oakhill, Ballashamrock, and through the parish of Santon, 
which was the old road, another running over the higher 
ground more inland by Mount Murray, which is that now 
generally traversed. The former seems to have been aban¬ 
doned in consequence of the deep gulleys which were 
crossed by it, over which it was deemed too expensive (in a 
country where no tolls are taken) to throw viaducts; but it 
was a great mistake to carry the new one in its present 
direction over two very steep and long hills (Middle Hill 
and Richmond Hill), through a country in great part wild 
and dreary in the extreme, and where good road materials 
are scarce; a middle line might have been adopted nearer 
and easier than either of the others, taking the old road as 
far as Ballashamrock, thence through Oatlands into the 
new road, near the half-way-house; and then from the foot 
of the hill, where the old and new road join about three 
and a half miles from Castletown, the road might have 
been continued by Ballahick and the Creggins, nearly in a 
straight line, and avoiding a very wearisome hill. It is not 
too late yet to adopt this route, and public rather than 


SOUTH BARRULE. 


23 


private interests will be consulted thereby. In this case 
it would be desirable to bring into use the masses of tough 
greenstone which lie scattered along the surface almost 
the whole way, than which there can hardly be a better 
road material. 

For the sake of the scenery, the pedestrian or horseman 
may well be advised, even now, to take the old road en¬ 
tirely, and carriages may adopt it in part by turning off 
from it by the by-road which runs through Oatlands and 
connects the old with the new Castletown road, about half 
a mile south of Mount Murray. At this point, where the 
by-road meets the new main-road, it will be well to pause 
and take a view of the south of the Island. The imme¬ 
diate neighbourhood, as has just been mentioned, is re¬ 
markably bleak and barren, consisting of cold clay lands, 
formed by the degradation of the subjacent schists. 
Scarcely a tree can be seen, and such as are seen convey 
the idea of nature holding out wretched signals of distress. 
Immediately to the westward, at the distance of four miles, 
rises South Barrule, looking black and frowning towards 
the south-west, seemingly supported to the right and left 
by its twin body-guards Slieuwhallin and Irey-na-Lhaa; 
whilst directly in front, above St. Mark's and the mining 
ground of Foxdale, rises a fine granitic dome, studded 
with disintegrating blocks of that rock, and spangled near 
the summit with masses of white quartz. South Barrule 
thus reminds us of an overgrown school-boy with a frosted 
plum-cake in his lap. We catch from this point also a 
glimpse of the Calf of Man and Spanish Head, with other 
of the more remarkable promontories; and turning more to 
the south, we observe the tower of King William's College 
standing out as a striking object at the head of Castletown 
Bay. 

But the traveller on foot or on horseback, as has just 


24 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


been mentioned, may well keep on the old Castletown road, 
and examine the different glens which run down to the sea. 
They are full of interest, and will well repay a visit in detail. 
Descending to the sea-shore below Ballashamroek, we 
come upon Port Soderic, a secluded and exquisitely lovely 
inlet, into which, at its south-western recess, the streamlet 
from Mount Murray makes its way, cutting through the 
beds of the boulder-clay formation, which we may com¬ 
mence studying here, where they have been sheltered from 
denudation in the interior of the little bay. The schists 
which form the horns of the bay rise at a high angle* in¬ 
land, and there become contorted; and this is apparently due 
to the intrusion of masses of greenstone*}*, which run hence 
in a direction nearly west magnetic, and throw the beds 
into an anticlinal along an axis in that direction, the traces 
of which are discernible in various creeks J along the shore 
for several miles towards the south of the island, and more 
especially at the mouth of the Santon river, near Coshna- 
hawin Head. The action of the sea at different levels 
upon the schists which have thus been disturbed, and the 
formation of a series of water-worn caves penetrating the 
lines of fracture, are highly deserving of study by the geo¬ 
logist ; and the artist will find here many a pretty gem for 
his sketch-book, and the lover of nature many of her 
wildest features for his contemplation. Here are the 
favourite haunts of the sea-fowl; and when a storm has 
been spending its fury on these rugged cliffs with a heavy 

* At the caves they dip S. 10° E. magnetic at an angle of 35°. 

t I have not as yet been able to discover the outburst of the 
greenstone at Port Soderic, though I have little doubt of its exist¬ 
ence in this neighbourhood, from the numerous blocks on the surface 
to the south-west of the bay. 

t In Sea-field harbour the strike of the disturbance is N. 82° W. 
magnetic, or nearly magnetic east and west. 


PORT SODERIC. 


25 


swell rolling in from the north-east, their wild screaming, 
mixed up with the roaring of the billows in the rocky 
caves and deep gullies, and the dash of the foaming surge 
upon the pinnacles of schist which stand out here and 
there into the sea, forms a concert of discords wonderfully 
impressive and heart-stirring. And so again are we soothed 
into a kind of romantic melancholy when not a breath stirs 
the waters, and the only sound is that of the lap-lapping 
of the wave, and its faint echo against the sides of the 
picturesque cavern on the quiet influx of the tide, mixed 
with trickling of water from the roof and the splash of the 
little neighbouring cascade which comes tumbling down 
fifty or sixty feet and mirrors a rainbow from the morn¬ 
ing sun; and there is the gentle bleating of the sheep on 
the crag above, and the plaintive cry of the curlew, which 
has made its nest in some rocky cranny along the shore: 
and then to look down into the clear deep azure pools and 
watch the finny tribe there disporting themselves, and 
tempting lobsters and crabs peeping forth from their holes, 
and all the beautiful variety of algse waving to and fro in 
the briny swell; where can we see these things in greater 
perfection than in Mona ? Who that loves such scenes 
will not hasten to enjoy them here ? 

The next principal inlet to the south of Port Soderic is 
Seafield. It is a fine open bay with rocky caves on the 
north side; and from the south side we have a good view 
of a wooded valley running up for some distance inland, 
and we have a continuation of the same geological pheno¬ 
mena, and consequently the same scenery as at Port 
Soderic. 

On the way we must have observed here and there con¬ 
stant accumulation of greenstone blocks on both sides of 
the road, but specially to the westward, and we shall have 
little doubt as to the direction in which many of these have 

c 



26 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


come. We shall find them in considerable numbers as 
we ascend from Seafield towards the church of Kirk Santon, 
and especially to the south-west on the summit of the hill. 
We cannot help noticing the circumstance that a very large 
use has been made of these boulders in the formation of 
the so-called druidical circles, which are, or rather were, 
so abundant on the island. 

The antiquary, when treating of the mechanical powers 
employed in bringing to their present position on the tops 
of hills these magnificent masses of stone, in an age when 
machinery must have been of a very simple character, 
seems sadly to have overlooked the fact of their having 
been in many instances a geological deposit left ready to 
hand frequently on those very spots where we now see 
them, brought thither (shall we say it ?) by the carrying 
power of ice which grounded and melted on those summits 
when the glacial sea was at a higher level relatively to the 
land than it now is. It is not necessary in each case to 
presume that the masses of ice thus transporting rocks 
were of such a size as to be strictly speaking icebergs ; the 
position of the blocks may very frequently be accounted 
for by the simple supposition of their having been frozen 
in amidst packed ice or mixed ice and snow*, which was 
afterwards broken up, forced along shore by the action of 
powerful currents, grinding down and smoothing in many 
instances the subjacent rocks which lay in the main pas¬ 
sages or tide-ways (and may we not in this way account for 
the vast accumulation of gravel, sand and clays in the lower 
portion of the boulder formation?), and again often stranded 
and forced inland in the form of packed ice by the action 
of stormy waves, and upon the deliquescence of the ice 
forming vast piles of detrital matter with mixed angular 

* Mr. Darwin has cited some admirable instances of such pheno¬ 
mena in his recent travels in the Southern Hemisphere. 


ICEBERGS. 


27 


and rounded blocks, according to the condition in which 
those blocks were when frozen into the ice. And both 
angular and rounded blocks may have become scratched 
and marked with furrows in their passage from one locality 
to another whilst held tight in their icy matrix; and this 
is the condition in fact in which we mostly meet with 
masses of rock in this formation. 

Perhaps in considering the boulder series on the Isle of 
Man, we may hold as a general rule that those accumula¬ 
tions which consist entirely or in most part of insular 
rocks, have been so deposited by shore-ice, and on the other 
hand we may attribute to the carrying power of icebergs 
those small boulders, and even large accumulations of 
boulders and gravel, which have a foreign aspect, and are 
plainly travellers from a more distant region. 

In discussing too the question of the action of shore-ice, 
packed-ice, icefloes, and icebergs in the formation of the 
boulder deposit in this neighbourhood, the true physical 
condition of the country relatively to the sea-level at that 
time ought to be taken into consideration. We must re¬ 
member that when the land was depressed and the sea 
reached higher up the mountains, we should have presented 
to us a chain of islands separated by very narrow channels*. 
The fearful rapidity with which the current at certain 

* In a French work published in Paris last year, entitled ‘ Re- 
cherches sur les Glaciers, les Glaces Flotantes, les Depots Erratiques, 
&c.,’ the author (Mons. Jules Granges) brings forward evidence to 
show that the inferior limit of perpetual snow descends lower in 
islands than peninsulas, and in peninsulas lower than on continents; 
and he comes also to the conclusion, “ que dans les climats insulaires, 
ou les temperatures moyennes sont assez elevees et ou cependant les 
temperatures estivales sont tres douces, les glaciers presenteront le 
plus grand developpement possible; ce sera precisement le contraire 
pour les climats continentaux.” The bearing of these statements 
on the origin of the boulder formation is very interesting. 

c 2 



28 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


points in the ebb and flow of the tide (aided also by parti¬ 
cular winds) rushes through the Sound of the Calf or Kit- 
terland Strait at the present period,, is a matter of noto¬ 
riety, and has not unfrequently been a cause of the loss of 
small vessels which have ventured through, and of human 
life. When in addition to this channel there was one from 
Port St. Mary to Port Erin, from Poolvash Bay to Peswick 
Bay, from Douglas to Peel, and perhaps from Peel by Kirk 
Patrick to Glenmoy, and from Port Lewaigue to Port Moor, 
thus forming, as it would appear, most probably seven islands 
and islets, the destructive power of conflicting currents 
charged with icebergs, icefloes, and drift-ice, bearing in 
their under surface, or mixed with them, fragments of por¬ 
phyry and other hard rocks, will readily be granted, and 
we shall be prepared to allow an extensive degradation of 
the shores, and a continual ploughing up of the sea-bottom 
in these channels. 

Let us now travel onwards, descending from Kirk Santon 
Hill to the Santon-burn, which taking its rise a little south 
of the Eoxdale mines at the foot of the granitic boss on 
South Barrule, flows down a wild and picturesque valley 
hardly ever visited, but certainly claiming and well reward¬ 
ing the detour of a few miles which the pedestrian may 
make up it. At various points up this valley, as in the 
Baldwin before-noticed, we shall find the streamlet cutting 
its way through masses of the boulder clay, which may be 
very finely studied here in the terraces which impend the 
stream on either side. Here and there the valley opens out 
and forms rich alluvial meadows, which a proper system of 
drainage would convert into most valuable land, but which 
is too often permitted to be so constantly under water as 
to produce little else than luxuriant crops of rushes. The 
geologist cannot fail of being struck with the singular 
grouping of blocks in this stream, the mixture of insular 


BALLALONA. 


29 


granite boulders from the north-westward with the boul¬ 
ders of greenstone from the north-eastward, as well as with 
foreign rocks. The former have been brought down from 
Barrule by the stream swollen with rain or melting snow, 
or (it may be) in ancient times by a glacier, the latter have 
tumbled out of the boulder formation wherever the stream 
has undermined a bank and claimed its contents for a 
prey. 

The road from Douglas to Castletown crosses the San- 
ton-burn at a very pretty point. There is a charm in the 
very name of the spot, Ballalona or Fairy-bridge. It is 
not often now-a-days that we can meet with persons not 
ashamed to own their belief in the existence of the good 
people, and still more seldom is it that we can extract affirm¬ 
ative testimony of eye-witnesses to their tiny pranks upon 
the green sward. It would be a mistake however to sup¬ 
pose that the minds of the Manx peasantry are uninfluenced 
by a superstitious feeling of reverence for the fairy elves, 
and for places which tradition has rendered sacred to their 
revels. The superstition has with them its use, it causes 
them to keep good hours; and in some parts of the island 
it would be difficult to prevail on a native to stir out after 
dark alone. Yea, it is said, that on dark, dismal and stormy 
nights, up in the mountain parts of parishes, the tender¬ 
hearted peasants retire earlier to rest, in order to allow to 
the weather-beaten fairies the unmolested and unwatched 
enjoyment of the smouldering embers of their turf fire. 
In the olden time the stories of their appearance to differ¬ 
ent parties were very rife. Waldron has preserved a 
goodly number, which no doubt he has largely garnished 
out of his own fertile and marvellous brain. Here is one. 
“ A farmer belonging to the parish of Malew was journey¬ 
ing across the mountains from Peel homewards and missed 
his road. Presently the sound of soft and flowing music 


30 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


reached his ears, on following which he was led into a mag¬ 
nificent hall, where he observed seated round a well-gar¬ 
nished table a goodly number of the little people, who were 
making themselves merry with the comforts of this life. 
Amongst those at table were faces which he fancied he had 
certainly seen in times past, but took no notice of them, 
nor they of him, till the little people offering him drink, 
one of them whose features seemed well-known to him 
plucked him by the coat tails, and forbade his tasting 
aught before him on pain of becoming one of them and 
never returning to his home. A cup filled with some 
liquor being put into his hand, he found opportunity to 
dash its contents upon the ground. Whereupon the music 
ceased, the lights disappeared, and the company at once 
vanished, leaving the cup in his hand. By the advice of 
his parish priest he devoted this cup to the service of the 
church, and I am told (says Waldron) that this very cup 
is now used for the consecrated wine in Kirk Malew.” 

Lord Teignmouth, in his sketches of the coasts of Scot¬ 
land and the Isle of Man, makes the observation that the 
Manx retain many superstitious notions common to the 
other branches of the Celtic family, and in proof of it men¬ 
tions a conversation which he had with his guide on the 
occasion of his visit to the island. The guide stated that 
about six years before that time a troop of fairies had ap¬ 
peared to a man of Laxey, who being intoxicated began to 
abuse them, but they wreaked their vengeance on him by 
piercing his skin with a shower of gravel. The catastrophe 
did not terminate here; for lo! next morning his horse 
died, his cow died also, and in six weeks he himself was a 
corpse. The brief hint of intoxication in the above case 
leads us to suspect that there was somewhat of truth as 
well as shrewdness in the suggestion of a certain local 
Wesleyan preacher, that the fairies had been seen taking 


THE PHYNNODEREE. 


31 


their departure from the island in empty rum puncheons, 
and scudding out of Douglas Bay with a fair breeze for 
Jamaica. 

Whilst on the subject of fairies, which our passage of Bal- 
lalona has evoked, it may be well to notice here that the 
Manx, as well as their Scottish and Irish congeners, have, 
in reference to the distribution of erratic blocks, by the 
help of the invisible race cut the Gordian knot which has 
long tortured the patience and tried the ingenuity of geo¬ 
logists. Many of these piles of stones, as well as the single 
blocks of stone which are perched upon eminences, are 
attributed to the labours of a certain evil genius, termed 
by them “ phynnoderee,” a kind of reprobate or outcast 
fairy, who for his sins was transformed into a shaggy Satyr, 
with long flowing goat’s hair and cloven feet. An in¬ 
stance is related of a certain farmer in the neighbourhood 
of Sneafell, who, being about to build a house, collected on 
the seashore a goodly pile of boulders. There was how¬ 
ever one enormous quartz boulder on which his heart was 
specially fixed, but which no human art could remove from 
the spot. In one single night the phynnoderee is stated 
to have transferred, not only this stone, but many hundred 
loads of the collected boulders to a distance of many miles 
inland, in proof whereof the erratic quartz rock is to this 
day pointed out, where it lies on an elevated spot on the 
mountain side. 


32 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


CHAPTER IV. 

The Sheading of Rushen.—General view of the southern area of the 
island—The Eye of the Calf—Spanish Head—Port Erin.—Port 
St. Mary.—Ballasalla.—Rushen Abbey—Castle Rushen.—King 
William’s College.—Langness.—The great natural features of this 
sheading.—Ellipsoidal hills of the boulder formation.—Great drift- 
gravel platform.—Valleys of denudation.—Estuary deposits.— 
Notice of the agriculture of the island.—Hints on drainage. 

A hundred yards south of the junction of the old and new 
road to Castletown and the road leading up to Harris- 
dale Farm, we reach the top of the last hill on the road 
from Douglas to the metropolis of the Isle of Man. Six 
hundred yards further brings us to a cottage on the right- 
hand side of the road, a most desirable spot for taking a 
bird’s-eye view of the structure of this southern area, and 
we may very well at this point enter upon the geology of 
the Sheading of Rushen. The stream we have just crossed 
(the Santon-burn) forms its north-eastern boundary from 
the sea inland to the very source of the stream at the Fox- 
dale Mines; thence to the north and north-west it is 
bounded by a curved line running over South Barrule (a 
little to the westward of its summit), and thence over Irey- 
na-Lhaa into the sea. It thus takes in the loftiest moun¬ 
tains of the southern division of the island, the great masses 
of schist in all the varieties here existing, the remarkable 
granitic boss near Foxdale, the old red sandstone frin¬ 
ging and underlying the basin of the carboniferous deposits, 
the limestone itself (the older beds of Ronald sway and 
Port-St.-Mary, and the newer series of Poolvash), the trap- 
tuff of Scarlet Head, and the trap dykes and greenstone 


THE SHEADING OF RUSHEN. 


33 


dykes which in different directions cut up the area; it 
includes the rounded hills of the boulder formation, the 
terraces of drift-gravel, and the still newer and most in¬ 
teresting series of marine and freshwater alluvia which 
occupy the southern valleys. In fact we have the entire 
geology of the Isle of Man itself brought within a reason¬ 
able compass in this single sheading. And here let us see 
wh^ft it is made of. 

We are looking down upon an elliptical area of some¬ 
what irregular outline, the extremities of whose major axis 
we may consider to be Coshnahawin Head in the north¬ 
east, and Port St. Mary in the south-west. The outline 
of the area to the north-westward of this axis is formed by 
the mountain chain, which from its general direction from 
N.E. by, N.to S.W. by S. curves round towards the south as 
it approaches the Calf of Man. We cannot see the Calf of 
Man from this point, but we catch a glimpse of the Eye of 
the Calf, which appears as if united to the main island. 
Spanish Head presents a bold front to the sea, and was 
till within the present year an overhanging precipice of 
more than 300 feet; it is surmounted by the Mull Hills. A 
gap (in which lies Port Erin) intervenes between these 
hills and Brada Head, which has a front to the west not less 
imposing than Spanish Head. Port Erin itself is hidden 
by one of the nearer eminences, over which peeps Brada 
Head to the south-westward. A second gap to the north¬ 
ward (in which lies Pleshwick Bay) separates Brada Head 
from the great mountain chain which terminates in Irey- 
na-Lhaa. Port St. Mary is conspicuous with its white¬ 
washed houses and the smoke of its limekilns to the north¬ 
westward of Spanish Head in a snug corner of Poolvash 
Bay. It is the most southern hamlet on the island, situated 
in the parish of Kirk Christ's Rushen, whose village church, 
if it had a very tall spire, we might perhaps distinguish 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


34 

over the hill in a line between us and Port Erin; and the 
same line would pass nearly over Arbory Church, and rest 
upon the venerable abbey of Rushen, the ruins of which 
lie down in the valley here about half a mile from us 
amidst that mass of foliage; we can just see two of its gray 
and ivied towers peeping out from amongst the elms which 
surround it. It is a spot full of solemn associations, the 
resting-place of kings, bishops, abbots and holy men.’*' 

O ! quis verendorum admonitus sacros 

Temnit locorum ? 

This at our feet is the village of Ballasalla, the largest in 
the island, and even within the last fifty years of sufficient 
importance to have a Deemster's Court held in it. And 
there two miles beyond on the western edge of its bay is 
Castletown itself, clustering round the ancient pile of Castle 
Rushen, which the Danish Guttred* erected nearly nine 
hundred years ago,—a noble specimen of fortification, 
scarcely inferior to that of Elsinore, which it greatly resem¬ 
bles. Wisely did that Scandinavian hero choose the mate¬ 
rial of his castle from the crystalline limestone of this imme- 

* In Johnstone’s Jurisprudence, page 13, it is stated that Castle 
Rushen was built by Guttred in 960, hut in some repairs of the Castle in 
1815 an old oak beam was discovered, bearing the following characters: 



The central letter appears to be a combination of the Mseso-Gothic 
X (o) and X (ch.). The date 947 is supposed to be the sera of the 
reign of Guttred, second prince of the line of Gorree, who acquired 
the island in the tenth century; Guttred is said to he buried within 
the Castle. Cardinal Wolsey, who was guardian to the young Earl 
of Derby, is generally supposed to have planned and caused to be 
erected the glacis, of which there is a portion remaining on the east 
and south sides. 




CASTLE RUSHEN. 


35 


diate locality. After more than eight centuries and a half 
of war with the elements, after the sieges* with which by 
man at various times it has been beleaguered, it looks as 
fresh and entire as its neighbour, King William’s College, 
raised from the same quarry not the seventh of a century 
ago. To be sure the latter has undergone the ordeal of fire, 
which has left somewhat of a more sombre and gray tinge 
of time upon its tower than would otherwise have been the 
case, yet even before that calamity appearances were not 
greatly in favour of the junior building. The reason in 
fact why both have suffered so little from the severe tests 
through which they have gone, is that the stone has been 
(so to speak) annealed in the quarry in ages long gone by, 
the great mass of molten trap with which the limestone is 
in contact at Scarlet-point having in cooling imparted to 
the latter rock (of which the College and Castle are built) a 
crystalline and enduring nature. Et is strange that with 
such a specimen as Rushen Castle before them, the archi¬ 
tects of Douglas Pier and Castle Mona should have gone 
across the water to England and to Scotland for a much 
worse material, a material too which does not harmonize 
so well with the character of the scenery with which Dou¬ 
glas is surrounded. 

But to return to the landscape now within the field of 
view. Malew Church peeps forth in a gap between the 
Creggins and Ballahot, and St. Mary’s Church in Castle¬ 
town is seen to the south-eastward between the castle and 
the bay. To the north of the town on the rising ground 
stands Lorn House, the present residence of the Lieut. - 
Governor. The old and new pier, the latter unfinished, 
are hid from view by the intervening buildings. Alto¬ 
gether the view of Castletown from this northern point 

* “In the year 1313 King Robert Bruce beseiged this Castle.” 
Feltham, page 274. 


36 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


is imposing, and gives tlie idea of greater extent than is 
the reality. The foreground too is good and sets it off to 
advantage; it appears to stand almost at the opening out 
of a finely cultivated valley into a noble bay, penetrating 
three miles inland, and being two wide at its mouth; the 
northern shore (the head of the bay) is relieved of the 
tameness it would otherwise have by the College, which 
forms, with its central tower rising more than 100 feet 
from the ground, a conspicuous object of a cathedral 
character. The basaltic pile of Scarlet Stack at the western 
side, and the peninsula of Langness on the eastern side 
of Castletown Bay, with its round tower near the southern 
extremity*, will next catch the eye; and then to the north 
of the narrow neck of land which joins Langness to the 
main island, lies the quiet fishing hamlet of Derbyhaven, 
with its retired and lovely bay. Bonaldsway, an ancient 
mansion and battle-field, and a favourite resort of the geo¬ 
logist, to the north of Derbyhaven, is hardly hid by the 
trees and rising ground of Ballahick, a property which lies 
down here to the left-hand on the opposite side of the 
valley from Ballasalla. 

But the great natural features of this southern area have 
as yet been hardly dwelt upon. 

The immediate neighbourhood is a low undulating 
country, presenting a series of rounded hills+ rising from 
100 to 200 feet, whose seaward front is a curved line from 
Coshnahawin Head towards Kirk Arbory. The most pro¬ 
minent are the Brough and Ballahick Hill on our left, 

* The fort and ruined church at the northern extremity of Lang¬ 
ness (or rather in the island of St. Michael, which is connected with 
it by a breastwork of stone) are concealed at this point by the hill 
above Ballahick. 

t See the Map of the Southern area, including the tertiary for¬ 
mations, Plate III. and Plate VII., section 1. 


THE CREGGINS. 


37 


Ballahot on our right, westward of Rushen Abbey, and 
directly in front and trending westward, the Creggins Hills, 
Skybright (near Malew church) and Ballown. If we ex¬ 
amine closely into the general direction of the axes of these 
ellipsoidal hills (the osar of Swedish naturalists), and of 
the short valleys or depressions between them, we shall see 
that it is parallel, or nearly parallel to the direction of the 
great mountain chain. It is also coincident, or very nearly 
so, with the direction of the scratches and groovings on 
the surface of the subjacent rocks whenever they can be 
discovered. The composition of these hills is the gravel, 
sand, and clay of the boulder or pleistocene formation; 
the points where it is best seen being in the banks of the 
Silverburn, below Ballasalla, near the Creggins, and again 
to the westward of Skybright. The lower portion will be 
found the more loamy, and of the colour of the subjacent 
rock, of which also it generally contains not very rounded 
but much-scratched fragments. The middle portion is 
generally sandy, with small rounded pebbles and boulders 
chiefly of foreign rocks; the upper portion is still more 
gravelly, but it is on the surface generally, and also on the 
higher ground that we fall in with the largest boulders, 
whether single or in patches. 

Direct attention again to the further-off landscape be¬ 
tween these rounded hills and the sea as far as the eye can 
reach. It may be described as one great terrace of gravel 
rising gradually inland from twenty-five to sixty feet above 
the sea-level, with an indistinct appearance of a series of 
lower terraces or raised sea-beaches down to the present 
sea-level. But the whole area of these terraces is cut up 
by a succession of valleys of denudation, which have evi¬ 
dently been occupied at one time by the sea as estuaries*, 

* See the Map of the Southern area of the island, including the 
tertiary formations, Plate III. and Plate VII., section 1. 


38 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


but which are now receiving constantly the alluvial deposits 
which the streams from the mountains bring down and 
spread forth in them. If we examine the outline of the 
coast and the materials of which it is composed, we shall 
discover certain causes which have operated in producing 
the present physical appearance of the lowlands. We shall 
see that Langness Point, Scarlet Head and Balladoole Hill, 
present to the south masses of tough, igneous and crystalline 
rocks which very powerfully resist denuding action, and 
which have acted as breakwaters against that action coming 
up the Irish Channel. We shall see also that the drift- 
gravel lies along and is preserved over the ridges of the 
undulations which have been impressed upon the subjacent 
limestones. Indeed so much so is this the case, that we 
might easily fall into the error that the limestone has been 
thrown into these wavy ridges since the deposition of the 
boulder clay series and drift-gravel; and some of my earlier 
sections across this basin favoured that supposition. A 
closer examination, and the finding rolled fragments of the 
trap, whose eruption caused the undulations of this area, 
in the boulder formation, showed such an hypothesis to be 
incorrect*. 

When the sea flowed over these low barriers of the hard 
palaeozoic rocks before the land had risen to its present 
elevation, it would wash the base of the rounded hills of 
the boulder series which have been spoken of as lying on 
a curved line from Coshnahawin to Arbory, beating up 
into the valleys between them, and doubtless causing the 
removal of large portions of the looser materials of which 
they are composed, transporting them to a greater or less 

* This remark must not be taken so as to exclude the probability 
of any disturbance having affected this area since the boulder clay 
deposit, as there is very good evidence of some disturbance, but in a 
different direction. 


ROUNDED HILLS. 


39 


distance according to their different specific gravities and 
the strength of the currents. The great terrace of drift- 
gravel was evidently the sea-bottom of that period, and its 
contents have in great part been derived from the boulder 
formation. The great features of these lowlands are there¬ 
fore plainly attributable to the denuding action of the sea- 
waves during the elevation of the island, and the resistance 
presented at various points by the superior hardness of the 
rocks subjacent to the tertiary formations; and the round¬ 
ing also of the lower hills of the boulder formation may in 
part, perhaps, be attributed to a similar action. Yet it 
seems not improbable that their contour had been im¬ 
pressed upon them previous to the elevation, when they 
lay as banks at some depth beneath the surface of the 
glacial sea, which we have evidence on the Isle of Man was 
relatively with the land 400 feet at least higher than it 
now is*. 

Presuming that the action of the currents would then 
he influenced as now by the coast-line, and that they would 
have the greatest force in directions parallel to it, tide¬ 
ways, i. e. submarine valleys, would be originated and 
maintained in those directions, and thus the apparent con¬ 
nection between them and the great axis of the island (which 
gave the form to the coast-line) would be established and 
exhibited on the subsequent elevation of the sea-bottom. 
It is further to be observed that the scooping out of these 
valleys would be aided materially, were the currents pass¬ 
ing through them charged with icebergs, which there is 
good reason for believing to have been the condition of the 
sea at that period. 

Of the agricultural character and capabilities of this 

* See my memoir on the “ Geology of the Calf of Man,” published 
in the Quarterly Journal of the Proceedings of the Geological Society 
of London, in May 1847, p- 184. 


40 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


southern area, it may be well to say a word or two before 
we leave this point d’appui. It is evidently the garden 
of the island, and altogether under the plough, and the 
advantages of soil and position for obtaining cheaply the 
most valuable ingredients for its improvement are ex¬ 
tremely great; yet it is only of late years that any 
attempts at systematic and scientific farming have been 
made. We may attribute much perhaps of this state of 
things to the fact of the farms having been broken up into 
so many small holdings, and the great deficiency of capital. 
To carry on therefore any general and effectual system of 
drainage was next to impossible, even if individual farmers 
had been so disposed. The gravel terraces and the lower 
rounded hills of the boulder formation admit of very easy 
drainage; but this is not the case with either the cold 
clay uplands which rest upon the schist and granite, or the 
alluvial valleys which have been scooped out of the drift- 
gravel ; and the consequence is that these are even yet 
under very partial and imperfect culture. The uplands are 
not very promising Tis true, yet individual instances of 
industry have shown that a profitable return for labour may 
be obtained even from them; and this more especially by 
the simple act of draining carried on with judgement 
through a series of years, even with very limited means. 
In every part of this sheading lime may be had within a 
distance of four miles ; the great wonder is that it has not 
been more largely used. 

But the case is different with respect to the valleys 
which open out immediately upon the sea. Their extreme 
moisture is owing to several causes, each of which requires 
a separate treatment. 

The denudation of the drift-gravel has originally taken 
place down to the lowest bed of the tough boulder clay, 
in many cases through the clay down to the inferior lime- 


HINTS ON DRAINAGE. 


41 


stone. The dip of the limestone towards the sea is gene¬ 
rally at an extremely low angle, and in some places again 
it is horizontal, at others raised up into bosses. 

The valleys have again been in part filled up with estuary 
deposits of marine sand and fine gravel, as well as with the 
detritus brought down by freshes from the mountains. 
These deposits are in most instances only a few feet thick. 
Hence the waters from the uplands after excessive rains 
accumulate in the valleys, overflow the river courses, satu¬ 
rate these sands and gravels, and are only ultimately carried 
off to the sea by an extremely sluggish natural drainage. 

But there is another additional cause of their moisture. 
The rains which fall on the gravel terraces which inclose 
the valleys, sink through the gravel and sand till they come 
down to the boulder clay. This is almost impenetrable, 
and the water prevented from descending further is thrown 
out on each side into the valleys, and the consequence is 
that just at the foot of the gravel terraces, where they fringe 
in a manner the valleys, there is a constant accumulation 
of moisture producing peat, moss, and rushes. One deep 
drain on each side of the valley would take off the springs 
at their head, but I am not aware of any instance in which 
this system has been adopted. Should the present hint 
be acted upon, it will afford an opportunity of testing the 
soundness of my views as to the structure of this area, and 
be an instance of the practical application of geology to 
the interests of agriculture in this particular locality. 


42 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


CHAPTER V. 

Lucian’s dialogues.—The physical constitution of Man.—The old 
Abbey-bridge.—Monks and . mills.—The Abbey of Rushen.— 
Ancient tripartite division of insular tithes.—Present misapplica¬ 
tion of the Abbey-third.—The Abbot stone of Rushen.—The 
Creggins Hill. — Drift-gravel platform. — Skybright. — Malew 
Church.—Recent changes in the level of the land. 

In one of those admirable dialogues by which the heathen 
Lucian so forcibly ridicules the vanity of human wishes, 
and exhibits the instability and utter nothingness of those 
things which the greater mass of mankind are toiling after 
and grasping at, he introduces the fabled ferryman of 
Styx in colloquy with Mercury*. They have piled Ossa 
on Olympus, and Pelion on Ossa, and have mounted atop. 
The aged Charon however soon discovers that by this ele¬ 
vation he has only gained a loss. He wished to become 
acquainted with man, to get a closer insight into his con¬ 
stitution, but he has raised himself so far above him as 
utterly to defeat the purpose for which he came from the 
depth of Erebus. He proposes therefore to the active con¬ 
ductor of the shades, that they should descend at once and 
visit one by one the different localities likely to afford him 
the choicest information. It is natural enough that we 
should express a similar wish with his, though the elevation 
from which we have been contemplating the physical con¬ 
stitution of Man has nothing to compare with the triple 
mountain height to which Charon toiled. 

Geologists are accused of very grovelling habits; they 
are said to be always burrowing under the earth; they pro- 
* Lucian’s Dialogues, —O i inicrKonovvTes. 


THE OLD ABBEY BRIDGE. 


43 


fess to pry deeper into millstones than other people. Be 
it so; they have a mission to fulfil, and humble though it 
may appear to many, they are quite contented with their 
vocation, and heartily labour at it. Let us descend. The 
geologist has been studying hitherto from his elevation 
only the great outline of this portion of Man; he wishes 
now to trace out in detail the individual features, each 
limb and member, yea, to mark each vein and artery 
through which flowed that igneous fluid* which once 
agitated and fashioned the entire frame. He does not, } t 
is true, in this immediate neighbourhood of Ballasalla fall 
in with those trap dykes and masses of greenstone which 
have disturbed and broken up this part of the island; for 
the whole of the palaeozoic series is covered up with the 
tertiary formations, except where the action of the moun¬ 
tain streams upon the boulder clay has laid bare the sub¬ 
jacent rocks, or the limestone has been sought after by the 
quarriers for economic purposes. There are, however, close 
by this ancient village (and in fact running through it) 
some traces of a disturbance of the older rocks which 
appears to be connected with the great elevation of the 
mountain chain. 

Just above the Abbey of Rushen is a very old bridge, 
how old it would be hard to tell; it appears in the earliest 
' maps of the island f, and it is sketched by Camden J as a 
remarkable object in his day. It is impassable by any 
vehicle except a wheelbarrow, and indicates a time when 
packhorses were alone used for the transport of men and 
their chattels. The neighbours know it by the name of 

* This lower area, as will be shown, is cut up with dykes of trap 
rock, the irruption of which seems to have contributed to the 
minor features of the country. See page 39, supra. 

t See Map of the Isle of Man in 1595, Plate IV. 

+ It is also given in Chaloner’s History, 1656. 


44 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


the Crossag. Just above it is a mill-dam, whose original 
fabrication we may well believe to have been by the monks 
of this abbey. How frequent a concomitant the mill is to 
the religious houses of the Cistercian order is well known, 
and as they, in the Isle of Man, were the special almoners 
of the poor, there is surely good reason for persuading 
ourselves that it has not been by mere accident that in this 
locality the abbey and the mill are so closely connected. 
There is the same evidence of design in the contiguity of 
a mill with the Friary Bowmaken in Arbory, an offset from 
this abbey of Rushen. We have it again in the mill hard 
by the nunnery of St. Bridget, near Douglas. 

Now betwixt the mill-dam and the bridge, if we look 
down into the river, we shall see that the beds of limestone 
are twisted up and set edgeways along a line of fault 
which just in this place crosses the stream in a direction 
N. 10° W. magnetic; but as the stream (the Silverburn) 
makes a turn westward a little higher up and coincides 
then with the line of fault, we may thus trace it upwards 
towards the mountain chain, and observe that in this 
direction the disturbance increases in value, and is at right 
angles, or nearly so, to the great line of elevation of the 
mountain chain. The uplift is on the southern side, and 
at Athol Bridge, a mile hence up the Silverburn, is about 
100 feet. Here, however, at the Crossag Bridge it is very 
small, and probably dies away entirely a little south of 
Ballasalla. The cross fracture again which runs at the 
back of the abbey garden to the westward, has brought 
up to view the old red sandstone from under the carboni¬ 
ferous limestone in a very interesting condition. It does 
not present to us its ordinary red colour, but pebbles of 
white quartz in a gray matrix of limestone, and includes 
the characteristic fossils* of the lowest limestone series as 


Particularly “ Orthis Sharpei.” 


THE OLD RED SANDSTONE. 


45 


seen elsewhere in this basin. Perhaps we may trace the 
passage more distinctly from the Devonian into the Carbo¬ 
niferous series a little higher up the hill, on the road-side 
near Ballahot Farm House. If we now follow the Peel road 
from this latter spot, we shall observe just on the brow of 
the hill before descending to Athol Bridge, the lower beds 
of the conglomerate with their ordinary red colour resting 
unconformably on the upturned edges of the subjacent 
claret-coloured schists, whilst on the other hand, we can 
easily trace by the Ballahot quarries hard by, the regular 
passage of the gray-coloured conglomerate into the dark 
limestone and shales of the lower carboniferous beds. 

Whilst sauntering near the venerable ruins of the Abbey 
of Bushen, let us muse awhile on its history. 

The statement of Sacheverell, that it was founded by 
Macmarus* in 1098, appears to rest on uncertain authority. 
That period was one of great confusion and desolation in 
the Isle of Man. 

Goddard Crovan, or Chrouban (white-handed), the Ice¬ 
landic Chief, in 1077 had defeated the Manks under Fin- 
gall their king at Ramsey and gained possession of the 
isle. He reserved the southern portion to himself and 
followers, and granted the northern to the inhabitants on 
the terms that none of them or their heirs should ever pre¬ 
sume to claim any part of it by way of inheritancef. He 

* “ Macmarus, a person of great prudence, moderation and jus¬ 
tice, in the year 1098 laid the first foundation of the Abby of Rushen 
in the town Ballasalley; these monks lived by their labour with 
great mortification; wore neither shoes, furs, nor linnen, eat no 
flesh except on journeys. It consisted of twelve monks and an 
abbot, of whom the first was called Conanus. I find the Cistercian 
order to have its first beginning this very year, though probably they 
were not planted here till six-and-thirty years after by Evan, Abbot 
of Furness.”—Wm. Sacheverell’s Account of the Isle of Man, 
published in 1702, page 33. 

t Note D, Appendix. The Act of Settlement. 


46 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


in turn was overthrown by Magnus, the piratical king of 
Norway, who having overrun the western isles and part of 
Scotland, seized upon the Isle of Man in 1093. Magnus 
shortly after returned to Norway, and seems to have left 
behind him 'as Jarl* or Viceroy, one Outher or Octtar, a 
Norwegian. Becoming obnoxious to the Norwegian inha¬ 
bitants of the southern district he was deposed by them, 
and Macmarus or Macmanis elected in his stead. The 
Northerns still adhering to Octtar, a civil war was originated. 
A battle fought at Stantway in Jurbyf between the con¬ 
tending parties gave the victory to the Northerns after a 
severe struggle, in which the leaders on both sides were 
slain J. In this juncture Magnus arrived a second time 
from Norway in 1098, found the island almost a desert, 
and the few inhabitants who remained living in caves and 
underground huts. 

It is not improbable that Macmarus on his election to 
be Jarl may have made over some lands at Ballasalla and 
Rushen to religious purposes, and that these lands thus 
devoted to religion were granted afterwards by Magnus to 
the Abbot of Rievalle, according to Camden, who further 
states that “ they did not build there.” Magnus, who was 
slain in an invasion of Ireland in 1103 at Moichaba, left four 
sons, the youngest of whom, Harold Gyllie, set up a claim 
to the throne of Man on the death of his father, which was 
rejected by the inhabitants, who gave in their allegiance to 
Lagman eldest son of Goddard Crov&n. His tyrannical 

* Hence our English title “ Earl.” 

f Or St. Patrick’s Isle. 

+ Sacheverell says, “ The women of the south side came with so 
much resolution to the assistance of their husbands, that they not 
only restored the battle, but as a reward of their virtue and bravery, 
to this day they enjoy half their husbands’ estates during their 
widowhood, whereas the northern women have but a third.”_Ac¬ 

count, page 34. 


OLAYE KLEINING. 


47 


acts, and especially his cruel treatment of his brother Ha¬ 
rold, whom he barbarously mutilated, created such disaf¬ 
fection that he was obliged to fly the country, and it is 
stated that he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and 
never returned. The Manks, finding themselves again 
without a leader and threatened with foreign enemies, de¬ 
termined to send for Olave Kleining (or the dwarf), the 
youngest son of Goddard Crovan, who had been brought up 
at the court of William Rufus and his successor Henry I., 
whose granddaughter AfFrica he subsequently married. 

Olave was quietly established on the throne of this isle, 
and appears to have ruled with mildness and equity. It 
was he who must be regarded in reality as the founder of 
the Abbey of Russin or Rushen. In the year 1134, ac¬ 
cording to the f Chronicon Mannise et Insularum*/ pre¬ 
served in the British Museum, written by the monks of 
this abbey, he gave to “ Ivo or Evan, Abbot of Furness, a 
portion of his lands in Mann, towards building an abbey 
in a place called Russin; he enriched the estate of the 
church with revenues and endowed it with great liberties.” 

The revenue he apportioned thus; one third of all the 
tithes to the bishop for his maintenance, the second to the 
abbey for education of youth and relief of the poor, and 
the third to the parochial priests for their subsistence. 
The Abbey of Rushen being a Cistercian cell dependent 
on the Abbey of Furness, received its abbots by appoint¬ 
ment thence. The Abbey of Furness seems also for some 
time to have appointed to the bishopric of Man. Certain 

* MCXXXIV. “ Fundata est Abbatia Stae. Mariae de Caldra. 
Eodem anno Olavus Rex dedit Yvoni Abbati de Furnes partem terras 
suae in Mannia ad Abbatiam constituendam in loco qvi vocatur 
Russin, deditque Ecclesiis insularum terras et libertates.”—Antiqui- 
tates Celto-Normannicae, page 13, printed at Copenhagen, 1786, from 
the original manuscript in the British Museum. 


48 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


it is that Wimond, who was Bishop of Man from 1113 to 
1151, was a monk of Furness Abbey, as was also Nicholas 
de Meaux, who was made bishop in 1203. The former 
there is reason to believe was of Manks descent. 

There is great plainness and simplicity in the few relics 
of the architecture of this abbey which now remain to us; 
square-headed windows and doors as plain as those of the 
plainest cottage on the mountain side,—clear proof both 
of the ancient character of this religious house and of the 
limited extent of its revenues at any time. There is cer¬ 
tainly no evidence here to bear out the statement which 
has been made by some, that in consequence of an accession 
of temporal dignity, the abbot and monks degenerated 
from their primitive simplicity and humble industry into 
pride and luxury. The property made over to their hands 
was in trust for others, and they seem to have exer¬ 
cised that trust honestly and rigidly. It was a noble tes¬ 
timony to their pious character and their poverty that the 
rapacious eighth Henry laid not his hand upon them till 
he had plundered all their English brethren. It was the 
latest monastery dissolved in these kingdoms; and like 
all other property perverted from ancient religious uses, it 
seems to have settled uneasily on its owner ever since, and 
has perpetually been changing hands. A regret has been 
expressed by many that it was not secured as the site for 
King William's College; it would thus have become again 
what Sacheverell states to have been the original intention' 
in its foundation, “a nursery to the church." What has 
become of the endowments ? “ When (as the son of Bi¬ 

shop Ward says) * the abbey was destroyed in that devour¬ 
ing reformation, its charitable possessions driven out into 
the world, its lands sold, its church the resting-place of 
kings and bishops desecrated, and itself buried in its own 
* Isle of Mann and Diocese of Sodor and Mann, p. 328. 


IMPROPRIATE TITHES. 


49 


ruins, the Lord of the Isle seized upon that third which had 
been held in trust by the monks pro bono publico” When 
Bishop Barrow came to the see in 1663, he found those 
vicars, the tithes of whose parishes were in the hands of 
the lord, in the greatest destitution; and devoting all his 
energies to raise them from this state, “ he found means to 
purchase a long lease of those Impropriations from the 
then Lord Charles Earl of Derby/'’ An estate of the Earl 
in England, viz. the Manor of Bispham, together with the 
farm or tenement called Methop, was collaterally bound 
for the payment of the clergy. On the alienation of the 
island from the Derby family, the Duke of Athol claimed 
the impropriations as an inseparable appendage of his 
estate and royalty, of which it could not be divested by any 
right that had or could be shown*. The clergy were thus 
thrown upon the collateral security, viz. the estate of the 
Earl of Derby. The deeds for some time could not be 
found, and the clergy were under most painful apprehen¬ 
sion, and would gladly have taken any reasonable conside¬ 
ration rather than lose all. At last, through the exertions 
of Bishop Wilson and his son, they were discovered in the 
Rolls Office, and the claim of the clergy was established. 
The compensation then agreed on to be paid out of the 
Derby estate was .£219 per annum; but in 1809 Bishop 
Crigan demanded a revisa], on the ground that the Earl of 
Derby had granted to Bishop Barrow all tenths yearly 
renewing, growing and increasing, and that the said tenths 
had greatly increased since 1735, when the former compen¬ 
sation was agreed on, and it was found that their real net 
annual value was £663. Lord Derby hereupon agreed to 
pay down the sum of £16,000 to be rid of the annual 
charge on his estate altogether, and very unwisely the sum 
was accepted, and spent in bad purchases of land returning 

* Life of Bishop Wilson by Crutwell, 8vo. vol. i. p. 177. 

D 


50 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


only about <£400 per annum. Before the sale of his rights 
to the English Crown in 1765, under the Act called the 
Act of Revestment, the Duke of Athol had sold half of the 
impropriations to different parties; the other half is now 
in the hands of the British Government, and amounts to 
above £525* per annum. It thus appears that of more 
than £1000 per annum, the present value of the third of 
the tithe belonging anciently to the Abbey of Rushen for 
the purposes of ecclesiastical education and relief of the 
poor, none is applied to its ancient use; it is alienated 
from the church; the £400 per annum applied to the 
augmentation of the salaries of the poorer clergy being, 
in reality, the proceeds of a certain claim upon an En¬ 
glish nobleman's estate, obtained of his ancestors, w r ith 
the moneys collected by the pious Bishop Barrow in 
1666. 

Humble in its architectural pretensions as this abbey 
is, it is the resting-place of the dust of mighty and pious 
dead. It is known that Reginald, Bishop of Man, who 
died in 1225, lies buried theref; Olave Godredson, king 
of the Isle in 1226, whose bastard brother the usurper 
Reginald J, without any legal title himself, surrendered the 
Isle to the Pope Honorius in 1219, was interred there in 
1237 §; and so also was the Norwegian general Gospatrick 
in 12401|. Magnus the last king of the Norwegian line, 

* The £525 per annum received out of the tithe by the British 
Government goes into the surplus revenue. The inhabitants claim 
that the surplus should be spent in the island upon improvements, 
and with seeming justice. Surely the church has an annual claim 
upon that surplus fund to the extent of £525 for the augmentation 
of the number of her clergy, their training, and the general purposes 
of church education.—See Appendix, Note E. 

f Chronicon Manniae, p. 44. § Ibid. p. 32. 

+ See Appendix, Note F. || Ibid. p. 34. 

II Magnus III., son of Olave Godredson, was chosen king by 


THE ABBOT STONE. 


51 


died in 1237, and was also interred in the Abbey of Rushen. 
In the abbey garden may now be seen an ancient tomb¬ 
stone, or stone coffin-lid. On its surface is a raised cross 
of beautiful device, by the side of whose shaft is a knight’s 
sword. This is the famous so-called “ Abbot stone of 
Rushen,” upon which certain erudite dissertations have 
been written, and conjectures hazarded, such as that it was 
the tomb of some “sword-bishop,” that is, a bishop exercis¬ 
ing temporal and spiritual supreme authority. The floriated 
head of the cross, having been somewhat damaged, has been 
converted into a crosier by the imagination of the first 
writer on the subject; and subsequent authors have taken 
his statement upon credit, instead of examining for them¬ 
selves. It appears to have belonged certainly to the tomb 
of a military person, but has nothing of the ecclesiastic 
indicated upon it. Its date is probably of the thirteenth 
century*. 

In passing from the abbey-grounds and following south¬ 
ward the course of the Silverburn, we soon find ourselves 
upon a line of disturbance running S. 40° W. magnetic, 
and the limestone upon the saddle being broken, permits 
the stream to pass onward in that direction, though there 
is a cross fault at right angles near Ballasalla House with 
the upcast on the south-western side, which seems to have 
acted in some measure as a barrier against the river, and 
perhaps at one period turned it down in the direction of 
Derbyhaven. It is at any rate very interesting to observe 

universal consent of the people in 1252, confirmed in Norway in 
1254, and by Henry III. of England in 1256. He assisted Richard, 
Bishop of the Isles, the next year, 1257, at the consecration of the 
Abbey Church of St. Mary of Rushen, which had been begun 130 
years before. He was the ninth and last of the race of Goddard 
Crovan, and left no child. 

* We have given a view of this beautiful relic of the mediaeval 
times. 

D 2 


52 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


the action of the stream on the loose materials of the 
boulder formation at an ancient period, and the formation 
of a species of basin to the northward of this fault, in 
which have been deposited montane alluvia. The river 
flows over the limestone for a considerable distance; pro¬ 
perly speaking, this rock forms its bed all the way hence 
to Castletown and the sea, though in the lower grounds 
there may be intervening a foot or two of loam and alluvial 
gravel and boulders. 

As we pass down the Silverburn, a few hundred yards 
below the flax-mill, we observe a good development of the 
boulder clay formation where it has been worn away by 
the river. The lower portion has a dirty bluish tinge, is very 
loamy, and abounds in scratched fragments of rock, chiefly 
limestone. A slight excavation would doubtless discover 
the surface of the subjacent limestone, which, as seen in 
the stream a hundred yards above, begins to rise here 
towards an anticlinal eastward of this point; and there is 
little doubt but that, as in other places in this area, where- 
ever the boulder clay is removed, this surface would be 
found grooved and scratched with lines directed nearly 
towards the magnetic west. The upper portion consists 
chiefly of yellow sand, rather loamy, and with smaller 
fragments of rock included, which seem generally foreign 
to this immediate locality. The top of the bank consists 
altogether of fine sand, which I presume belongs to the 
platform of drift gravel and sand, whose elevation reaches 
in this neighbourhood just to this height, as seen in the 
fields on a level with the top of this bank. I am more 
inclined to the belief that this sand is a portion of the 
raised sea-beach of the drift than that it forms a bed in 
the boulder formation and passes under the rounded hill 
of the Creggins to the eastward. Yet the question has 
its difficulties. Formerly I included the rounded hills of 


DRIFT GRAVEL. 


53 


this neighbourhood in the drift-gravel series, presuming 
them to indicate its highest level, and to have been subse¬ 
quently denuded and rounded during a period of elevation, 
or a rush of water from the north-east. Further study 
has led me to class them in the later period of the boulder 
formation, and to restrict the term “ drift-gravel” series 
to the great platform of gravel rising gradually inland 
from the coast, indicative of a certain period of quiescence 
and more regular stratification in the marine deposits. 
The existence of such a platform is clearly made out if we 
descend the stream for about 300 yards till we come to a 
rustic wooden bridge, and then on the other side (the 
eastern side) take a seat upon the steps which carry the 
footpath alongside of the first gate which stops up the 
bridle-road hence to the Creggins. It is an enchanting 
station for the lover of scenery, and deeply interesting will 
it prove to the geologist*. The steps on which we are 
sitting are fashioned out of the granite blocks which have 
been rolled down the Silverburn by means in part of that 
tributary branch of it which runs up to the granitic boss 
at St. Mark's, and carries off the drainage from that water¬ 
shed. Some of them have, no doubt, tumbled out of the 
boulder formation in the uplands, at such a spot for in¬ 
stance as Greenaby, where the stream may be seen under¬ 
mining banks from which are sticking out granite blocks 
which had been originally carried onwards from the great 
granitic boss by the drifting currents and diluvial waves of 
the boulder period along the south-eastern side of Barrule, 
and lodged in the various depressions on the mountain's 
side. 

Let us look up the country. There, just over the 
stream and the gravel terrace beyond, peeps up the modest 
parish kirk, with its white-washed walls and ancient bell- 
* See “ View of the Creggins Hill from the Silverburn.” 


54 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


turret. A painted eastern window has recently been in¬ 
serted, which casts a hallowed light within the church; 
and the antique granite font which for some time had 
outside of it been catching the rain-water gathered from 
its roof, has been restored to the inside of the building 
and occupies its proper place near the south door. 

The name of the kirk and parish (Malew) is evidently a 
corruption of the name of the patron, St. Lupus, in honour 
of whom the kirk was dedicated. The interior walls of the 
church are largely occupied by monumental tablets, the 
oldest of which bears the date 1578. 

To the westward of the kirk rises Skybright, a rounded 
hill of the boulder formation. On its top is perched a 
solitary erratic block of white quartz. Report says that 
once there was a circle there, and we may therefore regard 
it as the one last memorial of the earliest burying-ground 
existing at this place. There seems a melancholy pleasure 
in mingling our dust with that of our ancestors. It is another 
and a hallowed form of the spirit of patriotism which lingers 
in solemn reverence about the spot where our fathers wor¬ 
shiped when alive and are resting in death. Thus we find 
the kirk-yard of Malew, with its chiselled and dated grave¬ 
stones, in close contact with the more ancient circle on 
Skybright; and thus too we find the present church of St. 
Mary at Castletown near the site of the ancient temple of 
Jupiter Augustus*. 

Beyond Skybright we have Ballown resting in a wooded 
hollow, and thence a fine slope rises upwards towards Irey- 
na-Lhaa and South Barrule. Directly in front the clear 
stream comes purling down the valley through which we 
have just passed. Looking up it in the far distance is 

* In the grounds of Lorn House is a Roman altar, said to have 
been originally removed to Castle Rushen by Bishop Wilson, when 
he laid the foundation-stone of St. Mary’s Chapel in 1698. 












































































. 


' 






































































THE CREGGINS. 


55 


Greebah, like in shape to a decapitated pyramid. Its 
nakedness is relieved by the denser foliage of the trees 
which cluster around the old abbey and the grounds of 
Ballasalla House; and there is a mistiness about it, partly 
arising from the distance and partly from the smoke of the 
village of Ballasalla, which lies hid down in the hollow. 
The flax-mill forms a picturesque object in the nearer 
landscape, and we just hear its monotonous sound floating 
down to us upon the streamlet and the breeze. The dis¬ 
charged water from the wheel, as it rushes from the con¬ 
duit into the Silverburn below, raises many a bright burst¬ 
ing bubble to the surface, and attracts around its embou- 
chere a shoal of sportive trout. A hawthorn hedge at one 
point borders the stream; and the opposite bank is fresh 
with mosses and blooms with furze, not altogether, as 
Goldsmith says, unprofitably gay, for the cattle browse 
upon the tender shoots, and in some seasons of the year 
the branches are bruised by the mountain farmers and 
mixed with the other provender. And here close at hand 
is the study for the geologist*. 

The Creggins Hill in front is of an oblate hemisphe- 
roidal shape, and rises to the height of 130 feet above the 
high-water sea-level. To the north of it is a lower hill of 
similar shape and character, and the major axis (so to 
speak) of each of them runs nearly magnetic east and west, 
in a direction towards which all the currents in this neigh¬ 
bourhood tend. A flat terrace of gravel fringes round the 
base of these hills at a height of twenty-six feet above 
high-water mark. Yonder group of trees to the eastward, 
hard by the high road and the Creggins farm-house, have 
fixed their roots deep into and luxuriated upon this pebbly 
platform. But the steps on which we are seated are on 

* See “ View of Creggins Hill from the Silverburn,” and Plate 
VI. section 1. 


56 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


the level of a still lower platform of fine alluvial sandy loam, 
upon which the river in its meanderings has made great 
inroads, and deposited in its stead a considerable quantity 
of montane detritus, boulders, gravel and sand. In the 
corner of the field on our right, on the opposite side of the 
road from the cottage, is a patch of turfy ground, from un¬ 
derneath which, in a whitish marl, have been turned up 
some remains of Cervus megaceros. The drift-gravel di¬ 
rectly before us is worn into cavities, presenting all the ap¬ 
pearance of a low sea cliff exposed to the action of breakers. 
Its height above the stream, which at one point is wearing 
it away, is sixteen feet. If we were to follow the stream 
downwards towards Castletown Harbour, we might find, in 
the harbour itself below the level of high-water, trunks of 
trees, chiefly hazel, which seem to have grown on the spot, 
with leaves and nuts; and this, as we shall see hereafter, is 
not the only locality in this southern area where we meet 
with partially submerged forests. 

The explanation of these phenomena, the physical history 
of the country to be read from these hieroglyphics, seems 
to be this. The rounded hills of the newer boulder form¬ 
ation, presenting all the characteristics of those which the 
Swedish naturalists have described under the term osar 
and trainees , having been partially raised above the sea- 
level suffered considerable denudation, and contributed 
largely towards the materials of the drift-gravel platform, 
which was then the sea-bottom. This sea-bottom was 
afterwards raised, whether by slow degrees or suddenly we 
have hardly at present sufficient evidence to determine, 
though it is not altogether improbable that it took place 
at intervals during which the drift-gravel platform was 
greatly eroded and several depressions in it scooped out, 
in which freshwater lakes afterwards existed. This ele¬ 
vated drift platform connected the island with the sur- 


SUBMERGED FORESTS. 


57 


rounding countries, and was the means of the immigration 
into it of various tribes of animals and the introduction of 
several new species of plants. 

Afterwards forest-trees sprang up, and a rich vegetation 
clothed the surface. Another depression took place, and 
the sea regained in part its former area and overthrew and 
buried the forests. 

There has subsequently been a partial re-emergence. 

I am more inclined to this view of the position of the 
half-submerged forests than to that which would attribute 
it to a submergence going forward at the present period. 


58 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


CHAPTER VI. 

The ancient Castle of Rushen—The ramparts, the moat, the glacis, 
the keep.—Well in the drift-gravel.—The Derby family.—Bishop 
Wilson.—View from the castle walls.—The town.—The old chapel 
and clock-room.—Legend of the Black Lady.—Hango Hill.— 
Limestone blocks in the boulder clay.—William Dhone.—Skele¬ 
tons.—King William’s College.—Ancient foundation.—Advice of 
the Earl of Derby to his son.—Bishop Barrow.—The Isle of Man 
an ancient seat of learning. 

The ancient Castle of Rushen* occupies a commanding 
position on the southern side of the Silverburn, where it 
meets the salt-water on the western margin of Castletown 
Bay. The best near view of it is perhaps from the stone 
bridge at the northern extremity of the harbour. Its re¬ 
semblance to the Danish Castle of Elsinore has before been 
noted; and of its great antiquity there is no doubt, even 
should the datef fixed upon for its commencement be 
incorrect. 

There is a solemn majesty about it, and a solidity in 
its masonry which betokens great strength. In the centre 
is the keep, whose ground-plan is an irregular rhombus, 
the longer sides running nearly north and south. It is 
Ranked with towers on each side; the eastern, southern, 
and western standing out from it of a square form; the 
northern rising upon the building itself. At its northern 
extremity is a lofty portcullis, passing which is an open 

* St. Russin, after whom the Castle, the Abbey, and the Sheading 
have taken their name, was one of the twelve missionary fathers 
who along with Columba settled in Iona, a.d. 563. 
t a.d. 947. See page 34 supra. 


CARDINAL WOLSEY. 


59 


quadrangular court, with a well in the centre. The height 
of this keep at its entrance is seventy-four feet, and on the 
right-hand side of it at entering, a winding stone staircase 
leads us by ninety-nine steps to the summit of the northern 
or flag-tower, the total height of which from the ground 
is eighty feet. The southern tower rises seventy feet, and 
contains the clock which was presented by Queen Elizabeth 
in 1597, when she was holding the island in trust, whilst 
the rival claims between the heirs of Ferdinand and Wil¬ 
liam were being litigated*. The east tower is seventy 
feet, and the west the same, if we allow one foot for the 
rise in the ground. 

The thickness of the walls of the keep varies from seven 
to twelve feet. On the outside of it, at a short distance, 
is an embattled wall, in height twenty-five feet, and nine 
feet thick, with seven square towers at irregular intervals. 
Exterior to this wall was a fosse or moat, now filled up. 
On the exterior of this moat is a glacis, erected, it is said, 
by Cardinal Wolsey, when he was guardian to Edward, 
the sixth Lord of Man. At three several points in this 
glacis were formerly three low round towers or redoubts, 
now in ruins. The best specimen of them is seen on the 
north-western side, near the harbour. 

If the ditch were filled from the river, it is plain that 
there must have been some elevation of the land since its 
formation; at the present time the highest tides seem 
hardly capable of surrounding the castle with water to any 
depth. But it is stated that a few years since some wooden 
pipes were discovered conducting water to the castle from 
a reservoir in the higher ground. 

At the mouth of the harbour, and in its bed, the lime¬ 
stone is seen to rise from the bay on a saddle, whose axis 

* Rolt’s Isle of Man, page 42, edition 1773. 


60 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


runs S. 70° W. magnetic, and then to dip again inland*. 
The boulder clay and the drift-gravel have filled up the 
depression on the western side of this saddle, and the 
castle and town stand on the fine platform of gravel which 
we have before had occasion to notice. The wells of the 
castle and the town are sunk through the gravel generally 
to the clay. When carried too deep, they are sometimes 
rather brackish, in consequence of the sea-water, which 
finds access through the harbour at high water, the dip of 
the limestone inland preventing its easy return to the sea. 

Let us re-enter the castle. 

There is a winding road conducted between lofty ram¬ 
parts from the ditch, where formerly was the drawbridge, 
to the castle-gate and the first portcullis f. 

To the left-hand a flight of stone steps leads to the 
Rolls* Office J; and on passing through the portcullis into 
the open space between the two keeps, we observe on the 
right-hand another flight of steps leading to the ramparts, 
and conducting also to the Court House and the Council 
Chamber. These buildings were formerly occupied by 
the Derby family, and by the governors and lieutenant- 
governors of the Isle to the time of the late Lieutenant- 
Governor-General, John Ready, who resided there between 
two and three years §. A stone was lately thence removed 
in making some repairs, on which are inscribed the letters 

* Between the old and new pier is a trap-dyke, which seems to 
have greatly altered the limestone with which it is in contact. See 
Plates II. and III. 

t Anciently at the castle-gate were placed three stone sedilia, one 
for the governor, and the other two for the deemsters. In the year 
1430, Henry Byron, the lieutenant-governor, held a court of all the 
Commons between the gates on the Tuesday next after the 20th day 
of Christmas. 

X In which the public archives are kept. 

§ Lorn House, to the northward of Castletown, has latterly been 


THE EARL OF DERBY. 


61 


D. I. C.*, with the date 1644. I read them James and 
Charlotte Derby, who it is known resided here at that 
date, when they saw the commencement of the great rebel¬ 
lion, in which the former, like the blessed king whom he 
served, lost his head under the hands of cruel and unrea¬ 
sonable menf. 

As we enter the inner keep we have here too the memo¬ 
rial of another holy man, who preferred a clear conscience 
and Christian consistency to wretched expediency and a 
time-serving surrender of a righteous cause. In this little 
dark cell, on the left-hand, was confined the apostolic 
Thomas Wilson, who, ere he died, was one of the two 
oldest, poorest, and most pious prelates in Christendom J. 
He had suspended Archdeacon Horrobin, the governor's 
chaplain, for a serious breach of ecclesiastical discipline. 
Governor Horne in his rage and fury sent a band of 
soldiers to Bishop's Court, who conveyed the good man to 
Castle Bushen, where he was immured for two months. 
On the opposite side of the entrance, at the foot of the 


the Lieutenant-Governor’s residence: it is the property of the Cun- 
ninghame family. r — ■ — - 


D 


* Thus :— 


Ji CL 
1644* 


t For an account of James, seventh Earl of Derby, see Appendix, 
Note G. 

X “ Cardinal Fleury wanted much to see him, and sent over on 
purpose to inquire after his health, his age, and the date of his con¬ 
secration, as they were the two oldest bishops, and he believed the 
poorest in Europe; at the same time inviting him to France. The 
bishop sent the cardinal an answer which gave him so high an 
opinion of him that he obtained an order that no French privateer 
should ravage the Isle of Man.”—Crutwell’s Life of Bishop Wilson, 
8vo edition, vol. i. page 226. 


















62 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


flag-tower stairs, is another cell, in which were confined at 
the same time the bishop's two vicars-general. 

Let us now ascend by the spiral staircase to the summit 
of the tower, observing first on the headstone of the door¬ 
way* of the cell at its foot the date 1103; here seventy- 
two steps bring us to the room at present used for the 
chapel, thence eighteen steps lead us on to the roof, and 
nine more to the upper platform of the flag-tower. Now 
let us look around. 

In the far south-west lies the Calf of Man, with the 
rocks called the Borrough and the Eye,—the former pro¬ 
jecting from the island, the other isolated, and both drilled 
through by the action of the sea at a higher relative level f. 
Spanish Head rears its awful front towards Port St. Mary 
Bay, and the rocks in its neighbourhood are rent by a 
landslip into chasms 300 feet deep. The fine gravel plat¬ 
form on which Castle Rushen is built seems, as regarded 
from this point, to extend almost unbroken to Port St. 
Mary and Port Erin, the intersecting rivers not being 
distinguished; and the geologist will mark well the clear 
straight line which the drift platform presents against the 
western horizon, as contrasted with the broken and irre¬ 
gular outline of Brada Head and the Mull Hills, which 
tower upwards on either side to the height of 600 feet. 

Directly over Port Erin, in the gap between the head¬ 
lands just named, on a clear day, we can mark far away 
over the Irish Sea the magnificent granitic mountains of 
Mourne, Slieve Donard, and Slieve Bingian. 

Directing the telescope to the south, we may on a 
tolerably clear day discern the Paris Mountain in Anglesea, 

* The style of this and most of the other doorways is the square¬ 
headed trefoil arch, which prevailed in England in the twelfth 
century. 

t See Plate VII., section 6. 


st. mary’s church. 


63 


and still more to tlie eastward the Snowdownian range, 
with Carnedd-Llewellyn and Penmaenmawr. A great gap 
in the horizontal traverse then occurs —nihil nisi pontus et 
aer —till we reach at a north-eastern point Black Coombe 
in Cumberland, and the mountains beyond it round about 
Skawfell and Langdale Pikes. The more northern giants 
of Cumberland are intercepted by the nearer though very 
inferior elevations of this island, beginning with Santon 
Head and Douglas Head; whilst the “ Land o’ Cakes ” 
is shut out altogether by Mona’s Monarch and supporters; 
and of these the view from the castle-tower is highly in¬ 
teresting and imposing, from the manner in which they 
are grouped together. 

And then trace out the nearer landscape, the deep in¬ 
dentations of Poolvash Bay, Castletown Bay, and Derby- 
haven, crowded as they are in the summer months with 
the herring-fleet of from three to four hundred sail. And 
how beautiful the upland slope towards the dark heather- 
clad South Barrule, and the granitic boss above St. Mark’s, 
whence the silver river comes flowing down, and meander¬ 
ing in the alluvial valley before us, till it mixes with the 
sea-water in the harbour at our feet! 

We have also still nearer a bird’s-eye view of the town 
itself, the spacious market-place and parade, with its 
Doric freestone column, an honorary memorial of the ex¬ 
cellent Governor Smelt*. There to the right is the market- 
house, and opposite to it the barracks; and hark ! that is 
the trumpet-call to parade. St. Mary’s Churchf occupies 

* Erected in 1836. 

t In clearing away the foundation of the ancient cross which 
stood in the market-place, when the new portico of St. Mary’s 
Chapel was erected in 1826, three Roman coins of Germanicus and 
Agricola were discovered. The first erection of St. Mary’s Chapel 
was by Bishop Wilson in 1698. See Crutwell’s Life of Bishop'Wil¬ 
son, vol. i. page 41, 8vo edition. 


64 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


the south-eastern extremity of the market-place, and a 
little to the north of it is situated the Free School*, which 
was the more ancient church of St. Mary of Rushen, and 
has still about it more of the true character of church 
architecture than the modern erection. 

That square building in the open space to the east of 
the Castle is the House of Keys, the place of meeting of 
the Insular Parliament, consisting of twenty-four members, 
or Taxiaxi f, whose original institution dates back to the 
reign of Gorree or Orry, in the tenth century. And we 
must not overlook the old and new piers at the entrance 

* Of whicli the bishop and archdeacon are trustees : free-boys 
10; master’s salary GO/, per annum.—Isle of Man Charities, p. 23. 

t Mr. Feltham states (page 139 of his Tour through the Isle of 
Man), on the authority of Mr. C. Yallancey, that “ in the Gaedhlic 
taisce means a pledge or mortgage, and aisce a trespassand he 
infers that these Taxiaxi were originally hostages to the Lord of the 
Isle for their different clans. In the statute-book there is a docu¬ 
ment (drawn up in 1422, when the great meeting of the Commons 
was held at Reneurling in Kirk Michael) which states “ that there 
were never twenty-four Keys in certainty since they were first called 
Taxiaxi: these were twenty-four freeholders, to wit, eight in the out 
isles and sixteen in your land of Man, and that was in King Orry’s 
days. And since they have not been in certainty, but if a strange 
point will come which the Lieutenant will have reserved to the 
Tynwald twice in the year; and by the leave of the Lieutenant the 
deemsters there to call of the best to his Council in that point as he 
thinks fit to give judgment; and without the Lord’s will none of the 
twenty-four Keys to be.” At the Court held at Castle Rushen in 
1430 by Henry Byron, as before stated, six men out of every 
Sheading being chosen by the people and presented to him, he 
selected four out of each six and so made up the number twenty- 
four. At the present time, when one member dies or is discharged, 
the rest present two persons to the Governor, from w hom he chooses 
one to fill up the vacancy. The name Keys is perhaps derived from 
the Manks “ Keesh,” a tax. Till 1706 the Keys met in a room in 
the Castle. The present building w r as occupied by them in 1818. 


THE CASTLE CHAPEL. 


65 


to the harbour, altogether of insular materials and work¬ 
manship, and the guard-house just in front of the castle 
gates, with its lounging inmates and sentinel pacing to 
and fro. 

But we have not quite done with the castle itself,—we 
must visit the clock-tower, where the antiquarian will find 
objects for his study. ‘ 

We may have observed that the windows looking in 
upon the central open square of the keep have relics of 
tracery worked in freestone, and evidently inserted at a 
date later than the building of the castle. In looking at 
the castle from the outside (say from the drawbridge over 
the river), we observe one of these more ornamented win¬ 
dows on the eastern side of the clock-tower. I had long 
a suspicion that this might have been the eastern window 
of the old chapel, and an examination of the interior of it 
converted the suspicion into a certainty. 

On each side of the oriel window is a stone ledge on 
which rested the ancient altar, on the southern side of it a 
piscina, and on the north a small niche or cupboard (an 
equivalent of the credence table) for containing the sacred 
elements. In the northern angle of the little chapel, which 
is hardly fifteen feet square, is a small grated window com¬ 
municating apparently with a cell, which has been since 
thrown into a passage; we may readily conjecture this to 
have been the Confessional. Here at any rate was the old 
chapel of the castle garrison, and we may feel thankful 
that it has been converted to no other use than that of con¬ 
taining the more recent though still venerable clock, which 
is itself not without interest. It was a present from Queen 
Elizabeth (as we have before noticed), and an improvement 
on the antique sundial upon the market-cross below; and 
the bell, upon which the hours are tolled, was by its in¬ 
scription the gift of James, tenth Earl of the noble house 


66 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


of Derby, the last connected with the Isle of Man, in the 
year 1729, six years before his death. 

How long this ancient chapel may be occupied by this 
solemn monitor of the lapse of time ^t is hard to .tell. An 
unsightly addition to the castle within the last two years 
has blocked up the clock-face, and public convenience 
may perhaps demand the removal of the machine to a 
more conspicuous locality. O temporal O mores! We still 
have to go to school to the architects of the decried dark 
ages. 

There are strange tales afloat respecting this castle and 
its inmates in days of yore. Tradition connects the castle 
with the Abbey of Rushen by means of a subterranean 
passage*, which the lover of romance at one time has ren¬ 
dered subservient to the rescue of a captive maiden by her 
affianced knight, at another has described as a kind of 
facilis descensus Averni , the dark road to the Home of the 
spell-bound Giants. There is little need of fiction to give 
interest to a building whose realities are all romantic, and 
must move to sadness the heart that can feel for others' 
woes; but Waldron's account of the Black Lady of Castle 
Rushen is given with such a zest for the marvellous, that 
it may perhaps relieve the tedium of what some will deem 
a dry matter-of-fact description of this relic of feudal pomp 
and power f. 

“ A mighty bustle they also make of an apparition 
which, they say, haunts Castle Rushen in the form of a 
woman, who was some years ago executed for the murder 
of her child. I have heard not only the debtors, but the 

* The fact of dark cells built in the solid foundations of the towers 
and strongly arched over was established in certain repairs of the 
building made in 1816. 

t Waldron’s Description of the Isle of Man, folio edition, 1731„ 
page 136. 


THE BLACK LADY. 


67 


soldiers of the garrison, affirm that they have seen it at 
various times; but what I took most notice of was the re¬ 
port of a gentleman, of whose good understanding as well 
as veracity I have a very high opinion. He told me, that 
happening to be abroad late one night, and caught in an 
excessive storm of wind and rain, he saw a woman stand 
before the castle gate; and as the place afforded not the 
smallest shelter, the circumstance surprized him, and he 
wondered that any one, particularly a female, should not 
rather run to some little porch or shed, of which there are 
several in Castletown, than choose to stand still, alone 
and exposed to such a dreadful tempest. His curiosity ex¬ 
citing him to draw nearer that he might discover who it 
was that seemed so little to regard the fury of the elements, 
he perceived she retreated on his approach, and at last, he 
thought, went into the castle though the gates were shut. 
This obliging him to think that he had seen a spirit, sent 
him home very much terrified: but the next day relating 
his adventure to some people who lived in the castle, and 
describing as near as he could the garb and stature of the 
apparition, they told him it was that of the woman above- 
mentioned, who had frequently been observed by the sol¬ 
diers on guard to pass in and out of the gates, as well as 
to walk through the rooms, though there were no visible 
means to enter. Though so familiar to the eye, no person 
has yet had the courage to speak to it; and as they say 
that a spirit has no power to reveal its mind unless con¬ 
jured to do so in a proper manner, the reason of its being 
permitted to wander is unknown.” 

On leaving Castle Rushen, and the heroes both of ro¬ 
mance and reality who make a figure on the page of its 
‘history, are two objects in the immediate neighbourhood 
closely associated with one of them, and serving to keep 
up our interest in the character of the great and unfortu- 


68 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


nate James Stanley, seventh Earl of Derby, and bis most 
truly heroic Countess,—these are Mount Strange and 
King William's College. 

At the head of Castletown Bay is a singular and cha¬ 
racteristic patch of the boulder clay formation. It seems 
to have been originally one of those low, rounded, ellip¬ 
soidal hills of that formation, which we have had occasion 
already to notice in the neighbourhood of the Creggins, 
but of a still more diminutive character, hardly rising 
twenty-four feet above the present high-water level. The 
continued action of the sea, the rain and the wind, has in 
the lapse of time reduced this mound to at most only half 
its original size, and now it presents a low cliff to the 
south-westward, affording an excellent insight into its 
structure. 

Let us imagine an inland lake, which in the extremity 
of a most severe winter has been frozen to a great thick¬ 
ness, bursting from the accession of waters on a sudden 
thaw; or rather let us call to mind the magnificent spec¬ 
tacle of the debacle of the Val de Bagnes* in the autumn 
of 1818, brought about by the extension of the Glacier de 
Getroz, and the consequent stoppage of the Dranse in the 
previous winter. The melting of the icy barrier, aided by 
the reflex action of the overpouring cascade, let loose in 
half an hour 500 million of cubic feet of water, to roar 
and rage and roll onwards through a narrow and tortuous 
gorge with unspeakable velocity and with awful grandeur ; 
and thus ultimately a vast torrent of water, mud, gravel, 
boulders and blocks of ice poured forth upon the devoted 
district of Martigny, sweeping down in its passage trees, 
bridges, barns, cottages, and even large buildings. 

Arrest such a torrent in its course, and, fixing it upon 

* For an account of this debacle see Lyell’s Geology, vol. i., or 
Edinburgh Phil. Journal, vol. i. 


HANGO HILL. 


69 


the spot, permit the waters quietly to drain off, and you 
have in character just such an accumulation as that pre¬ 
sented at the head of Castletown Bay, only substituting in 
the latter place angular and scratched blocks of limestone 
for the angular and scratched blocks of ice. 

We have a consolidated mass of black or dirty blue mud, 
such as we can easily imagine to be formed by the grind¬ 
ing down of the dark limestones and shales of this district, 
such a debris in fact as is formed in the yards of the stone¬ 
masons of this neighbourhood where this same limestone 
is cut and polished. In it we find mixed up confusedly 
gravel and sand, and pebbles (not large) of foreign rocks, 
granites, syenites and porphyries, fragments of the coal- 
measures of Cumberland, and one or two chalk flints*. 
We have some boulders of the insular granite and larger 
masses of insular rock, such as greenstone and old red 
conglomerate, but above all masses of limestone in rhom- 
boidal blocks, some weighing upwards of a ton and having 
the appearance of transport from Coshnahawin, a mile and 
a half to the north-eastward, where we find the limestone 
beds on the sea-shore cracked and broken up into similar 
masses by the intrusion and subsequent cooling down of 
trap. These limestone blocks seem pushed over one upon 
the other, and piled up amongst the gravel, sand and clay 
in wondrous confusion. 

Here is the study for the geologist; and he might, per¬ 
haps, imagine that one of the names of the spot, Mount 
Strange t, has something to do with the extraordinary 

* The nearest locality of the chalk is in the north of Ireland. It 
is just possible that the examples of chalk-flint which I have found in 
the boulder clay of Hango Hill may have tumbled down out of the 
overlying drift-gravel. 

t It is generally known by the name Hango Hill, from its having 
been formerly used as a place of execution. 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


70 

history of its physical composition; hut it is not so. The 
name is taken from one of the titles of the Derby family, 
and the locality is famous for an event which has been con¬ 
sidered by some as casting a shade over the memory of that 
illustrious lady, whose defence of Lathom House* and 
uncompromising fidelity to her sovereign and her liege 
lord, showed her worthy of being the wife of the great and 
good James, the seventh Earl of that noble family. 

In the parish register of Kirk Malew is the following 
notice:—“Mr. William Christian of Ronaldsway, late 
Receiver, was shot to death at Hango Hill, 2nd January, 
1662. He died most penitently and most courageously, 
made a good end, prayed earnestly, and next day was 
buried in the chancel of Kirk Malew." 

The crime for which he suffered was alleged treason 
against the Countess of Derby, in that he had in the year 
1651 headed an insurrection against her, and, taking the 
sovereign power into his own hands, had thereby deprived 
her and her heirs of their vested rights. He made no at¬ 
tempt in court to defend himself against the charge, alle¬ 
ging his Majesty Charles the Second’s general pardon and 
indemnity as a sufficient bar against all legal proceedings. 
This plea was overruled by a majority of the court, as not 
availing in case of treason against a member of the reign¬ 
ing family; and he was sentenced forthwith to be “ shot 
to death, that thereupon his life may depart from his 
body+.” 

* See Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 449. 

t Sir Walter Scott in his ‘ Peveril of the Peak,’ has erroneously 
stated that his execution took place in the court-yard of Peel Castle. 
He has perhaps confounded this William Christian with Edward 
Christian, who died in Peel Castle in 1670, having been committed 
by the Earl of Derby in 1643, on his attempting a disturbance. He 
had been governor in 1628. 


WILLIAM DHONE. 


71 


The memory of William Dhone is held sacred by Manx¬ 
men, and he has been regarded by them as a martyr to 
the cause of popular liberty. It is difficult at this distance 
of time, when the whole tone and character of society has 
so entirely changed, to pass a correct judgement upon acts 
which, if attempted now, would doubtless be reprobated as 
excessively harsh and unjustifiable. 

That was not a period when those who had power felt 
themselves amenable to the judgement of their fellow-men 
as to the manner in which they should use it. The royal¬ 
ists had suffered too great injustice at the hands of the 
Roundheads in the period of the great rebellion, to be over 
scrupulous of the exact limits of justice towards the weaker 
party when the power was restored into their hands. They 
would doubtless endeavour to excuse any excess on the 
severer side, by the argument that "those should have 
judgement without mercy who had showed no mercy ” 

The husband of the noble Countess had, in defiance of 
all the laws of war, been condemned by a court-martial to 
lose his head, after quarter for life had absolutely been 
granted to him on his surrender; and he was put to death 
under aggravated circumstances of insult. William Chris¬ 
tian was a 'protege of the Earl, who reposed in him so 
much confidence as to leave him with the command of the 
insular troops, and as the protector of his wife and children. 
He enters into a conspiracy "to withstand the Lady of 
Derby in her designs ?’ and within eight days after the 
murder of her husband, at the head of a popular insurrec¬ 
tion, forces the widowed and sorrowing Countess to con¬ 
sent to their demands. 

It has been further stated, and never clearly disproved, 
that on the first appearance of the parliamentary troops 
under Colonel Duckenfield off the island, William Chiistian 
at dead of night seized on the Countess and her family in 


72 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Castle Rushen, and conveyed them as prisoners to the in¬ 
vading army. Into the true character of this man we may 
perhaps gain some further insight, from the circumstance 
that when James Chaloner was appointed commissioner by 
Lord Fairfax, he found it necessary to sequestrate the 
estate of the Receiver-General, to make compensation for 
the unaccounted for arrears of the exchequer, and impri¬ 
soned his brother John for assisting him in escaping off 
the island. 

With a knowledge of these facts, let us place ourselves 
in the position of the Derby family at the period of the 
Restoration, and we shall perhaps own the temptation very 
great to hasten the downfall and death of such a character. 

Since that event time and tide have done their work of 
devastation upon this spot. That old gray battlemented 
ruin crowning the mount was then standing in the midst 
of a circular area, and there was a drive all round it, and 
the cliff was removed some thirty or forty yards from the 
building. Already has one side of the large rectangular 
room which it contained become a prey to the waves, and 
the remainder totters on the brink of a precipice, which 
each equinoctial spring-tide bids fair wholly to pull down. 

“ No more the glance 
Of blazing taper thro’ its windows beams 
And quivers o’er the undulating wave; 

But naked stand the melancholy walls. 

Lash’d by the wintry tempests cold and bleak. 

Which piece-meal crumble down the whole to dust.” 

The ground was anciently used as a place of sepulture, 
and as the cliff tumbles down, the graves are exposed to 
view, and the skeletons one after another become the sport 
of the rolling surge. It has been presumed that these are 
the mortal remains of criminals who have been executed 
on the spot. If so, they must have suffered at a period 


KING WILLIAM^ COLLEGE. 


73 


anterior to the erection of the building now in ruins, for 
the destruction of the last winter has discovered skeletons 
directly under the very foundation of it*. I am somewhat 
inclined to the belief that we have here one of the many 
ancient tumuli which are scattered about the island; and 
that the use of the spot as a place of execution, and its 
consequent nomenclature, is of a more recent date. 

But we have not yet entirely bid farewell to him with 
whom it has been well said, “ the sun of the house of 
Stanley set in clouds and darkness." 

There is good reason for tracing up the origin of King 
William's College to the great Earl of Derby who perished 
at Bolton. In that letter of advicet to his son Charles, 
which he wrote in 1643, during his sojourn at Castle 
Rushen, we meet with these two clauses : “ Fear God, 
honour the King. Have this in your thoughts, first to 
choose a reverend and holy man to your bishop;" and 
“ I had a design, and God may enable me to set up an 
university without much charge (as I have conceived it), 
which may much oblige the nations round about us. It 
may get friends unto the country and enrich this land. 
This certainly would please God and man." The troublous 
times in which he lived and died, prevented him from 
carrying out these pious designs. His son, when restored 
to his own, remembered one part of that advice, which 
has led, after the lapse of nearly two centuries, to an at¬ 
tempt at carrying out the wish of the father as above ex¬ 
pressed. In 1661, good Mr. Rutter, who had been arch¬ 
deacon for many years, was appointed to the bishopric, a 

* In addition to the case of William Christian before mentioned, 
there is another memorandum in the parish register, stating that in 
the year 1654 Kewish and Callow of Kirk Maughold, who were 
executed at Hango Hill, were buried in Kirk Malew. 

t See Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 429. 

E 


74 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


man for whom (said the Earl to his son) you and I may 
both thank God. He was removed by death* in two years, 
and in his place was appointed Dr. Isaac Barrow + (after¬ 
wards translated to St. Asaph), who at the same time was 
made governor of the Isle. And in this joint office as 
sword-bishop, or governor both in civil and ecclesiastical 
state, he conferred in the short period of his stay most im¬ 
portant and lasting benefits upon this church and people. 

It has before been noticed J, that at the period of the 
Reformation the abbey third of the insular tithe fell into 
the hands of the Lord of the Isle, and that Bishop Barrow 
managed to purchase a long lease of those impropriations 
from Charles, the eighth Earl of Derby, and with these im¬ 
propriations he increased the salaries of the poorer clergy. 
After the purchase a small sum remained in his hands, 
which was afterwards increased to £600, which he directed 
should be applied towards furnishing a master for his pro¬ 
posed academic institution. He also by will granted the 
sum of £20 per annum, due and arising out of the profits 
of the estate of Ballagilley and Hango Hill, towards the 

* The following singular epitaph, written by himself, was placed 
on the tomb of Bishop Rutter in Peel Cathedral, inscribed on a 
brass-plate. The plate was removed from the tomb about fifty years 
ago, and was supposed to be lost or destroyed, but was discovered 
in 1844 at the bottom of a well near the sally-port of Peel Castle. 

In hac domo quam a vermiculis 
Accepi confratribus meis spe 
Resurrectionis ad vitam 
Jaceo Sam permissione divina 
Episcopus hujus insulae. 

Siste, Lector} = {Vide ac ride 
Palatium Episcopi. 

Obiit XXX 0 die mensis Maii 1663. 

f Fellow of Eton, and uncle to the famous Dr. Isaac Barrow, 
Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. 

X Page 49, supra. 


BISHOP BARROW T, S FUND. 


75 


maintenance of three boys at this academic school when 
it should be settled; or in case there should be no such 
school within twelve months after his decease, then to¬ 
wards the maintenance of two youths at some university 
abroad*. In the year 1728, the trustees of Bishop Bar¬ 
row’s fund came into full possession of the above estates; 
and after the year 1808, the Academic Masters’ fund and 
the Academic Students’ fund were merged into one trust. 

The accumulations from this trust, aided by public sub¬ 
scriptions and a mortgage on the Ballagilley and Hango 
Hill estates, enabled the trustees to commence the erection 
of the present college, which was first opened for the re¬ 
ception of students on the 1st of August, 1833, and named 
in memory of his Majesty King William IV. 

Writing in the year 1829, Lord Teignmouth says, 
“ Bishop Ward does not despair of executing another pro¬ 
ject—the foundation of a college for the education of the 
Manx clergy. The success which has rewarded a similar 
plan of the Bishop of St. David’s, affords him much en¬ 
couragement ; and it is hoped that such a place of educa¬ 
tion might, from its vicinity, and from the great cheapness 
of living, attract students from Ireland and the adjacent 
parts of England, who could not otherwise afford the ex¬ 
penses of a residence at College; and that Mona may be¬ 
come once more, as in ancient times, the fountain of honest 
learning and erudition +.” 

* At the present, three youths at Cambridge are holding exhi¬ 
bitions from this estate of thirty pounds a-year each. 

t “ Hector Boetius says that Man was the fountain of all honest 
learning and erudition. Others of the Scotch nation held it to be 
the Mansion of the Muses, and the Royal Academy for educating 
the heirs apparent of the crown of Scotland, as Eugenius the Third 
himself, who likewise sent three of his sons into the Isle of Man to 
be educated under Conanus, whom they write Bishop of Sodor, 
two of which, Ferquard and Donald, were successively kings of 

E 2 


76 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


And in a note written in 1836, he adds, “It affords 
me much gratification to state the successful result of the 
zealous efforts of Bishop Ward, and other trustees of Bishop 
Barrow's fund, to establish a college for the objects above 
specified. That worthy Prelate's pious intentions have 
been thus fulfilled, after an interval of nearly two cen¬ 
turies." 

May we not believe that Bishop Barrow had before him 
the suggestions of the illustrious Earl of Derby in his 
famous letter to his son, and that to such suggestions 
King William's College is somewhat indebted for its pre¬ 
sent existence ?* 

Scotland, as both Hector Boetius and Hollinshead witness. So 
celebrated was the discipline of those ages, that it seems to have 
passed into a law that the princes of Scotland should be educated 
in this island.”—Saclieverell’s Account of the Isle of Man, the In¬ 
troduction, p. 5. 

* For a further account of King William’s College see note H, 
Appendix. 


CASTLETOWN BAY. 


77 


CHAPTER VII. 

Castletown Bay.—The. Scraans.—The race-course.—Sir Isaac New¬ 
ton.—Measures of time and space.—The measure of a man.—The 
former extent of the drift-gravel.—Time occupied in its erosion and 
in the formation of the Irish Sea.—Consideration of time arising 
from the composition of a gravel bed.—The circuit of Langness. 
—Trap-dykes, Bosses, Natural arches.— Round tower.— Por¬ 
phyry.—St. Michael’s Isle.—Ruined oratory.—The old fort. 

On the eastern side of Hango Hill is a grassy recess open¬ 
ing to the south, and affording a pleasing view of Castle¬ 
town and its extensive horse-shoe bay. The town is well 
relieved against the dark mass of the Mull Hills which 
rise over the bold cliffs of Spanish Head; St. Mary's 
Chapel, the Castle and the five-sailed windmill standing 
prominently forth with the two quays and the shipping in 
front, and the whole picture falls again upon the eye re¬ 
versed in the watery mirror at our feet. 

A series of marine residences occupy the shore to the 
south of the town terminating with Scarlet House, thence 
the coast-line sweeps gently south-eastward; and where 
the limestone rises on a series of undulations against the 
outburst of igneous rock, forming at its extremity the 
basaltic pile called the Stack of Scarlet, a group of lime¬ 
kilns, with their front seaward, may easily be mistaken for 
a battery guarding the entrance to the bay. 

The opposite horn of the bay is formed by the southern 
point of the peninsula of Langness, or as it is written in 
the old map of the island before alluded to, “ the poynt 
Langnouse.” It is a mass of clay-schist tilted and con¬ 
torted between two hard greenstone dykes, which here run 


78 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


out into the sea S. 70° W. magnetic, nearly in a line with 
the Eye of the Calf, and form the Scraans, an awkward 
reef on which the tide sets with great force from the Calf 
of Man. In the hollow of Langness, leaning up against 
the schist, and just at the angle bending over it in a saddle, 
is the Old Red conglomerate and sandstone which forms 
the entire eastern coast-line of the bay till we reach the 
isthmus of Eerbyhaven. The isthmus itself is formed by 
a long bank of gravel and sand, which I believe to belong 
to the drift period, though it has the general character of 
the sand dunes which are found on coasts liable to periodic 
winds *. 

This bank extends all along the head of the bay to 
Hango Hill, and is clothed with a short and sweet herbage 
and crowded with wild flowers. The purple thyme creeps 
along upon the ground, mixing with the yellow flowers of 
trefoil and galium, and the vernal squill with its pale blue 
petals rears its graceful head in spite of the stormy south- 
westers that sweep across the bay; the sea-holly ( Eryn - 
gium maritimum) has sent down its long taper roots into 
the sand, and flourishes even amongst the shingle which 
has been driven by the tides high and dry on the shore. 
As the bank dries up almost immediately after a shower, 
and commands very beautiful views, it is a favourite pro¬ 
menade of the neighbourhood, and is known familiarly by 
the name of the Race, from the circumstance of its having 
been used as a race-ground some few years ago. The 
fishermen spread forth their nets here on the Saturday's 
eve at the close of the herring season, when the shoal has 
come down to the bays in the south of the island, and 
the little children amuse themselves afterwards in pick¬ 
ing up the bits of coarse coral and the star-fish and sea- 

* A cutting made for a drain last summer shows alternating layers 
of pebbles, sand and loam. 


THE MEASURE OF A MAN. 


79 


urchins which have been entangled in them and dragged 
ashore. 

The saying of the great and yet humble-minded Newton, 
towards the close of that bright career of physical discovery 
which has placed his name high upon the list of those 
illustrious philosophers of whom Great Britain justly 
boasts, will often occur to us in our sea-side rambles: 
“ I seem to myself but as a child who has been permitted 
to gather a few bright pebbles on the shore, whilst the 
vast ocean of eternal truth has lain before me wholly un¬ 
explored." 

The works and the monuments of man we may easily 
measure by our own finite standards of time and space, by 
days, months and years, by inches, feet and miles; but 
our scales are all too large or too small when we attempt to 
apply them to the measurement of the works of Him from 
whom the Monad and the Archangel are alike infinitely 
removed, and to whom they are still alike most intimately 
known; of Him “who inhabiteth eternity, and is the same 
yesterday, to-day and for ever." 

What an astounding idea of time is presented by the 
scene which we are now contemplating! The age of the 
ruin on the cliff above us we may talk about, the years 
also of the venerable Castle, which still rears its head un¬ 
scathed over the western margin of the bay, are all num¬ 
bered : these are the works of man, and come within the 
measure of a man. But what dare we say of the age of 
that bed of gravel which runs like a fringe all round the 
bay, capping all the rocks which are twenty feet above 
high water mark ? Let us pass over this raised sea-beach 
on which we are sitting, which is not more than eight or 
ten feet above the present high water sea level; for since 
it contains shells not apparently differing at all from those 
now inhabiting the neighbouring sea, it may be considered 


80 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


geologically recent, though the very gradual rise by which 
it seems to have been laid dry, may have been going on 
long antecedent to the period which we call historical. 

It is very readily seen how this drift-gravel bed was at 
one time at the bottom of the sea, and that it was spread 
out pretty evenly on all sides, filling up every depression, 
and thus of course filling up the bay of Castletown; so 
that on the elevation of the sea-bottom there would be a 
tolerably plane surface of boulder clay, drift-gravel and 
sand extending across from Langness to the Castletown 
side of the bay, at the same general level as the terrace of 
drift which now only circles it around. 

In few words, then, there was at one time a line of cliff 
extending from the Stack of Scarlet to the point of Lang¬ 
ness, similar to that which is now seen three miles inland 
from those points at the Head of Castletown Bay. Let us 
suppose that here the sea began its eroding work upon the 
drift-gravel platform, and how many thousand years has it 
been in eating its way up to Hango Hill? We have said 
that in 1662 (0. S.), when William Dhone was here shot 
to death, the cliff was probably removed frdm thirty to 
forty feet from the building. Let us reckon the work of 
destruction to have been sixty feet in the last 200 years 
(and the old maps of the island, and the situation of 
Castletown Harbour itself forbid us to allow much more), 
and we have one yard in ten years, that is, at this rate of 
waste it requires more than 50,000 years for the excava¬ 
tion of Castletown Bay. 

When the sea cliff was more exposed no doubt its de¬ 
struction would be much more rapid, and we therefore 
may very well make a considerable reduction on the above 
period. But when we have even halved and quartered it, 
there are years enough remaining to make one start back 
in amazement at the conclusion at which we have arrived. 


CONSIDERATIONS OF TIME. 


81 


Yet we have not done with the question of the drift- 
gravel platform, and the ages consumed in its destruction. 
Relics of this platform remain on the coasts of all the 
countries surrounding the Isle of Man, on the coasts of 
England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland; and there is every 
evidence we can desire for showing that by it were these 
countries connected together, and that at the same time 
and in the same manner England was connected with the 
continent of Europe*. This drift-gravel, then, occupied the 
whole area of the present Irish Sea; and the cliff which 
we have spoken of as extending from the Stack of Scarlet 
to Langness Point, we may on the same considerations 
remove in ages long before to a line across the mouth of 
St. George's Channel. Now bid the Ocean do its work, 
and then calculate the ages it would be occupied in making 
its cutting and removing the excavated materials between 
St. David's Head and the Head of Castletown Bay. 

In speaking of the destruction of this great gravel plat¬ 
form, nothing has as yet been said of the time taken up in 
its formation. We have not spoken of the years during 
which the different pebbles, of which it is in great part 
composed, were being rolled about and rounded into their 
present shape, after they were broken off from their parent 
rock and exposed to the action of the tides upon the coast. 
We have hardly yet alluded to the fact that many of them 
existed in the shape of pebbles in an older formation (the 
boulder clay), out of which they were washed and sifted 
and sorted ere they were distributed in layers in the more 
recent drift. Nor have we touched upon the consideration 
that the rock itself, from which they were originally broken 
off, was once a bank of sand or mud, which had been 
formed by quiet deposit of layer upon layer at the bottom 

* See Professor E. Forbes’ papers in the Appendix. 

E 5 


82 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


of the sea before it was consolidated, and then heaved up 
to become a coast-line, and again exposed to the breakers. 
Still would there be the consideration of the wave upon 
wave which broke upon that first granitic mass which ap¬ 
peared above the primseval ocean, and so wore it away 
particle after particle to form the first sedimentary deposit. 
We can measure our own age, and the age of our most 
lasting works, by the grains of sand which run through 
our hour-glasses; but to measure the age of those very 
sands, we must apply cycles made up of the revolutions 
of the sun itself about the far-off centre of our sidereal 
system. 

From Hango Hill we may start on a short excursion 
round Langness, which, as may be seen by reference to 
the geological map, will bring us into acquaintance with 
three distinct palseozoic formations within small compass— 
the Schist, the Old Red Conglomerate and the Limestone, 
being the representatives of the Silurian, Devonian, and 
Carboniferous periods. The Old Red cropping out from 
under the limestone on the eastern side of the bay, and 
reclining upon the schist, we can walk across the basset- 
edge, and within a very short space get an insight into the 
order of deposition and the character of the rocks. 

As we pass along the shore at the head of the bay in an 
easterly direction when the tide is out, we can break up 
with our hammer one bed after another of the lower lime¬ 
stone series, consisting of dark-coloured, limestones and 
shales; and without much trouble can gather together a 
fair collection of the characteristic fossils; Gigantic Turbi- 
nolia , specimens of Productus hemispharicus, Orthis Sharpei, 
Leptana papilionacea, Bellerophon apertus, and Cirrus ro- 
tundatus meet the eye. 

The limestone rocks in the north-eastern corner of the 


TRAVELLED BLOCKS. 


83 


bay, just before we come upon the old red conglomerate, 
are of a brown arenaceous character, and highly crystalline 
in texture. I believe they have been much altered by the 
escape of heated gases, containing acids, through the cracks 
formed at the period of the intrusion of the trap of this 
neighbourhood amongst the subjacent beds of the old red 
conglomerate. We very soon come upon a narrow trap- 
dyke, running at first southward down the axis of the 
saddle, into which it has thrown the old red conglomerate, 
till it reaches the great dyke, which, intersecting the 
peninsula of Langness, crosses Castletown Bay, and is 
observed again in the harbour between the old and new 
piers. It requires a practised eye to distinguish the trap 
here amongst the sea-weed and pools of muddy water 
which the higher tides only just reach. 

This corner of the bay is a place of great resort for 
wild-fowl, ducks and geese, which “ dulcibus in stagnis 
rimanturand here too the long-legged solitary heron 
may ofttimes be seen lazily flapping his wings and drying 
himself in the sun. „ 

It is also interesting to mark on the shore a series of 
large boulders of porphyritic greenstone, placed in a line 
nearly due east and west magnetic towards the limekilns 
which are on the opposite side of the bay, near the Stack 
of Scarlet, and to connect with them the fact that close by 
those limekilns is a large boulder of the same rock, and 
that there is an outburst of apparently this same rock at 
the northern extremity of Langness, at a point which is 
just eastward of these blocks which we see on the shore. 
We shall find also that the groovings and scratches on the 
limestone under the boulder clay, near the Stack of Scarlet, 
have all this same direction, which we may therefore rea 
sonably believe to have been the direction of the current 
which drifted away the blocks from the northern end of 


84 ; 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Langness, and also the direction of the general drifting 
current of that period. 

Close by the gate which leads up to Langness Farm¬ 
house we catch sight of the schist, which has been brought 
up by the fault which elevated the Langness Peninsula. 
It is highly ferruginous and claret-coloured, as, is gene¬ 
rally the case immediately under the old red conglomerate. 
We soon lose sight of it under the drift-gravel. 

As we proceed southward we cannot help noticing the 
old coast-line prior to the last elevation; it seems more 
distinctly preserved here than at any other point. The 
low ground along the margin of the bay, made up chiefly 
of shingle, and covered with a scanty vegetation, was at 
that time between high and low water, it is now elevated 
from eight to ten feet above the highest tides. On the 
opposite side of the bay, near to Scarlet House and Sea- 
view, we have at the same level beds of shells of a recent 
date, such as Littorina rudis, Littorina littorea, Purpura 
lapillus, Patella vulgata, and Buccinum undatum. 

Just at the point where the road ascends from this lower 
beach to the higher terrace of the drift-gravel, we have 
another trap-dyke having the same general direction as 
that before noticed to the northward, but more distinctly 
exhibiting ramifications amongst the beds of the old red 
conglomerate*. The ground-plan of it is well-worthy of a 
minute study, and the contrast of colour of the two rocks 
(the green or olive-coloured trap and the red conglomerate) 
renders the phenomena distinctly visible to even an un* 
geological eye. The trap seems to shoot out in one strong 
body from the schist to the eastward, and may be seen as 
a dyke of the breadth of forty-five feet, where it runs out 
to sea on the eastern side of the Peninsula; but as soon as 
it enters upon the old red conglomerate, which overlies the 
* See Plate VII., section 4, and Plates II. and III. 


BRANCHING DYKE. 


85 


schist, we find it separating into branches, and twisting 
about amongst the pebbles and boulders of that formation 
in a most singular manner. Some of these branches taper 
off to an extreme thinness; we can trace them by the 
colour till they are scarcely the thickness of a wafer. Now 
on the opposite side of the bay, at Knockrushen, we see 
this dyke*, where it cuts through the limestone in the 
same solid and compact form which it has where it cuts 
through the schist. There are there, to be sure, two or 
three straight cracks in the limestone, which have been 
filled up by the fluid trap injected from this dyke; but the 
general fact which we must observe is this, that in the 
schist and tough limestone the trap-dyke is compact; in 
the old red conglomerate it is spread out and branching. 
And thus we come to the conclusion that the fluid trap was 
forced upwards with enormous force through the schist; 
that when on its ascent it reached the more permeable and 
separable beds of the old red conglomerate, tied down as 
they are by the tougher masses of limestone, it spread itself 
out, and ultimately raising the limestone in a boss or 
saddle, produced a crack, or series of cracks, and so forced 
its way through the opening to the surface. And I believe 
we must in this manner account for the great number of 
undulations and bosses on the surface of the limestone, 
which we meet with in this area wherever the removal of 
the tertiary formations by the denuding action of the sea 
enables us to examine any extensive portion of the surface. 

All the rocks in contact with the trap are more or less 
altered, and from the minute crevices into which it has 
evidently insinuated itself, there is every reason to conclude 
that it was in a molten condition when it rose to the sur¬ 
face. At the same time it appears probable that it was 
accompanied by a discharge of gases containing acids, which 
* See Plate II. 


86 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


were forced into more minute cracks and between the bed¬ 
ding of the limestone, and hence the altered and crystal¬ 
line condition of these limestones, even at a considerable 
distance from the trap-dykes, or at any rate where the trap 
does not appear at the surface. 

In passing further down the coast to the south-westward, 
we may trace one of the branches of this great dyke wind¬ 
ing itself about in a very remarkable manner, till at length 
it intersects a large bed of greenstone at a point where the 
schist comes out more distinctly from under the drift, and 
presents a cliff to the westward. Unfortunately a mass of 
debris prevents our examination of the circumstances of 
this intersection, and the drift-gravel also hinders our 
tracing this branch dyke any further to the south when it 
has crossed the greenstone*. 

Parallel with this greenstone bed we meet with three 
others within a hundred yards in passing along the cliff; 
if we must consider them as dykes, we must observe that 
they do not penetrate the old red sandstone; but as they 
lie in the plane of the schists, or nearly so, and have the 
same strike, viz. N. 85° W., the probability is that the 
greenstone was either poured out upon the bed of the sea 
at intervals during the deposition of these schists, or accu¬ 
mulated there in the form of volcanic ash, as we shall see 
was the case afterwards in the carboniferous period, when 
we examine the trap tuff at Scarlet Head and in Poolvash 
Bay. 

The lovers of pic-nics and rustic parties have found a 
spot every way suited to their innocent festivities, at the 
caves and natural arches which lie a little further south 
along shore. The fault, on the south-eastern side of which 
the peninsula of Langness has been lifted, as we have 
hitherto traced it, runs nearly due west magnetic; it seems 
* See Plate III. 


ROMANTIC ROCKS. 


87 


however just at this point to make a sudden turn, or rather 
there is a cross fracture meeting the other at an angle of 
70°, and the direction it takes hence is about 10° west of 
south. The action of the sea when at a higher relative 
level with the land, dashing against the beds of the old red 
conglomerate thus shattered by the cross fracture, has 
carved out a series of sea-side grottoes, romantic arches 
and grotesque pillars, and pinnacles of rock. The strata 
being of different degrees of hardness, and dipping at a low 
angle towards the centre of Castletown Bay, have suffered 
unequally from the destructive beat of the waves; and the 
erosion has been much greater upon some of the beds of 
the conglomerate than on others, and hence the strange 
variety of outline presented to our view. Uncouth faces, 
outvieing the poppy-heads of mediaeval architecture, seem 
to be grinning down upon you from every nook and cranny. 
Gigantic noses, gaping mouths fashioned out of the boul¬ 
ders, and white quartz pebbles, which protrude from the 
red mass of the conglomerate, topped with rude wigs of 
hoary lichen moss and saxifrage, startle you on every side. 
There is one isolated mass which has oft reminded me of 
the dons of our ancient English universities on commemo¬ 
ration days in cap, wig and scarlet robes; in fact, there is 
hardly an animal or figure which does not meet with its 
caricature amongst these romantic rocks. And the peep 
out through the archways, the cracks and the chasms in 
the rock upon the bay, and the country which backs it, is 
particularly pleasing. 

I remember well the autumnal eve when in a sea-side 
ramble I first came upon the unexpected beauties of this 
spot. It was quite a discovery, for not a rumour of it had 
reached my ear, though I had been in the neighbourhood 
several weeks. Not a breath crimpled the azure sheet of 
water spread before me. A few fleecy clouds were cresting 


88 


THE ISLE OE MAN. 


South Barrule and Irey-na-Lhaa, which cast their long 
shadows athwart the landscape, and from the many white¬ 
washed cottages which stud the mountain^ side, were 
rising steadily on high wreaths of smoke, doubtless redo¬ 
lent of turf and herrings. A gleam of sunlight shot 
through that singular aperture at the southern extremity 
of the Calf Islet called the Eye, and came streaming along 
in a glorious ruddy pencil over the calm surface of the 
deep. Here and there a sail was flapping to and fro in 
lazy mood, whilst the hull attached to it was drifting along 
on the tide and currents which sweep by the coast. Directly 
across the bay, the dark basaltic pile of Scarlet Stack was 
casting a still darker patch of shadow upon the waters. 
At the point where I was sitting, just under the archway, 
Castletown itself was hid by a mass of rock directly in 
front; but the voice of the bells of the chapel of St. Mary 
summoning to the Wednesday evening service, and the 
steady beat of oars in the rowlocks of some boat which 
was making its way into the harbour, came floating to my 
ear upon the dewy wing of eve. The College formed a 
distinct object through an opening to the north, with the 
picturesque ruin on Hango Hill in advance of it*. On 
ascending the cliff I was suddenly struck with what I took 
for a star of extraordinary brightness, just visible on the 
outline of the Calf; I watched it a few seconds, it grew 
fainter and fainter, and at length disappeared; presently 
it shot forth again with increasing splendour: it was the 
lower of the revolving Calf lights. 

There is in this southern area of the Isle of Man no ex¬ 
ample of the unconformity of the old red conglomerate 
with the subjacent schist more distinct than that presented 
to the eye of the geologist at these caves, and there is none 


* See view of the Caves on Langness. 













' 










■ .m Spt>. 















•* 






























































\ 
















NATURAL ARCHES. 


89 


affording a more useful lesson for the tyro in such studies. 
The abutments of the arch last-mentioned consist of claret- 
coloured schist somewhat contorted, but having a general 
dip 55° W. magnetic at an angle of 50°. The different 
layers of the schist are rendered distinct by their varying 
tints. The crown of the arch consists of the old red con¬ 
glomerate, the coarseness of which and the size of some of 
the boulders cannot but cause surprise. It looks extremely 
like a consolidated ancient boulder clay formation, only 
there is more approach to distinct bedding, more regularity 
of stratification, as in the drift ^gravel deposits. Was it 
accumulated under similar conditions of climate and in a 
sea of like character ? Were there periods of excessive 
disturbance of the ocean bed, storm periods, so to speak ? 
Had the extraordinarily bony character of the fishes of 
the old red sandstone (the Osteolepis or bony-scale, for 
instance) anything to do with such a condition of the ele¬ 
ment in which they lived ? Was it so that those strange 
trilobitic- looking fishes of that sera (the Coccosteus, Pte- 
richthys and Cephalaspis) had to endure the buffeting of 
icy waves and to struggle amidst the wreck of ice-floes and 
the crush of bergs ? These are questions which we may 
perhaps venture to ask, but which we dare not hope to 
have solved till we know something more than at present we 
know of the history of the boulder clay formation itself. 

We might spend much time upon the southern extremity 
of Langness, if time were at our disposal, most usefully and 
agreeably. It is intersected by trap-dykes, and forming 
angles with these are two parallel greenstone dykes*, which 
seem to have originated the ridge running out in a westerly 
direction and terminated by the Scraans. The schists, as 
before observed, are remarkably contorted between these 


* See Plate II. and Plate I., section across the island. 


90 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


dykes*. From this locality we may distinctly mark how 
the old red conglomerate and limestone, which were once 
continuous over the whole peninsula of Langness, have 
been denuded and remain only in depressions on the west¬ 
ern side where protected by the greenstones and schists. 
We have thus some evidence of the direction of the denu¬ 
ding currents. 

Even the capping of drift-gravel has its interest, and 
the scenery around is of the finest description; it affords 
us the most magnificent land-view we can get of the entire 
mountain range of the island, and ought not to be missed 
by any one who wishes to get a just idea of the structure 
of this side of it. For this purpose we may ascend the 
building erected on one of the highest points, which I 
cannot learn has ever been used for any other purpose than 
a land-mark, but which possesses all the characteristics of 
the round towers of Ireland. 

There are some exquisitely picturesque chasms all the 
way up the eastern side of Langness, and a reference to 
the geological map will show that the schist is extremely 
well-developed, and a good insight afforded into the man¬ 
ner of intrusion of the igneous rocks and the nature of the 
intersection of those of different age, as for instance, the 
mass of greenstone to the north of the land-mark running 
in a direction S. 70° W. magnetic, with the more southerly 
of two large trap-dykes which intersect the peninsula. 

At the northern extremity, the great development of por- 
phyritic greenstone may be well studied; and also the ap¬ 
pearance of gravel terraces, though the plough has too 
much disturbed them for any accurate observations on 
their different levels, if there have ever really existed more 

* In a specimen now in the museum of the Geological Society of 
London, there are three contortions as acute as a ridge-tile within 
the length of a single foot. 



ST. MICHAEl/s ISLE. 91 

than the two marked ones of the before often alluded to 
drift-gravel platform and the terrace of the last raised sea 
beach. 

The little isle of St, Michael* (commonly called Fort 
Island), on which stands the fort and ruined church, is 
connected with Langness at its northern point by a narrow 
causeway. The causeway is built across two not very wide 
trap-dykes, which are nearly parallel with a general direc¬ 
tion magnetic N. 18° W. They appear again at low water, 
crossing the ridge on which stands the Derbyhaven break¬ 
water. The greenstone also appears in some force at the 
northern extremity of this causeway, and is protruded in 
bosses amongst the schist. It is observed at low water in 
several places along the eastern shore of Derbyhavenf. 

This diminutive islet seems to have had considerable 
importance attached to it in ancient days. Perhaps our 
posterity may discover that in this respect our ancestors 
were wiser than we are. Camden will have it J that this 
was the ancient Sodor, and that in it Pope Gregory IV. 
founded a bishopric which he named Sodorensis, and which 
had jurisdiction in times past over all the western islands. 
Whence he got his story is uncertain, but it is certainly 
incorrect. 

There can be no doubt of the great antiquity of the little 
chapel or oratory at the west end of it. Two centuries ago, 
as figured in Chaloner^s f Description/ it was a ruin. It re- 

* In the old map of the island, Plate IV., it is called St. Mighil’s 
Island. 

f See Plates II. and III. 

X “ Their chief town they count Russin, situate on the south side, 
which of a castle wherein lieth a garrison, is commonly called Castle¬ 
town, where within a little island Pope Gregory IV. instituted an 
Episcopal See, the bishop whereof, named Sodorensis (of this very 
island as it is thought), had jurisdiction in times past over all the 
islands.”—Camden’s Britannia, folio, page 204, Scotland. 


92 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


minds us strongly in its architecture and general details of 
the interesting church of Peranzabuloe in Cornwall, de¬ 
scribed by Mr. Collins in f The Lost Church Found/ It 
differs however in the number of windows. The church of 
Peranzabuloe was lighted by but one , this has four , an east 
and a west window, and a north and south placed very near 
the east end. The west, north and south windows are 
square-headed, the two latter being only twelve inches wide 
outside, but with a wide splay to two feet ten inches inside. 
The east window is one long single light, with a semicir¬ 
cular head and only ten inches in breadth outside, but 
largely splayed. 

This little chapel is of but one compartment, whose 
length is thirty-one feet and breadth fourteen. The thick¬ 
ness of the walls is three feet. At the west end is a simple 
bell-turret. The chapel was entered by one door on the 
south side nine feet from the west end, the height of which 
is six feet, and the width two feet four inches. This door, 
like the east window, has a semicircular heading, formed of 
small pieces of the schist of this neighbourhood set edge¬ 
ways round the arch, whilst the door-jambs are of rough 
blocks of limestone. There is no appearance of a tool on 
any part of it, if we except the coping-stones on the west 
gable. 

We may mark the foundation of a stone altar under the 
east window, and at the same end in the north corner, three 
stone steps which may have served as an ambo or pulpit. 
The height of the side walls of the building is only ten feet. 
The length of its graveyard is 192 feet and the breadth 
ninety-eight, and as yet it is untouched by the plough: 
this is more than we can say of many other similar chapels 
scattered up and down the isle. Witness St. Catherine's 
Chapel in Christ's Pushen parish, which is inserted in the 
old maps of the island. 


ORATORY OF ST. MICHAEL. 


93 


It has been stated by some writers that the chapel was 
dedicated in honour of St. Mary; it seems more probable, 
from the name of the little islet on which it stands, that 
St. Michael was the patron. The orientation of the build¬ 
ing is E. by N., and singularly enough falls directly in a line 
with the little chapel in Castle Rushen before mentioned, 
and, if I mistake not, with the ruined chapel at Port-St.- 
Mary. If we dare place it along with the church of 
Peranzabuloe in Cornwall in the same century as the oldest 
recorded stone church in Great Britain, viz. that of Can¬ 
dida Casa or Whithern, *. e. Whitchurch in Galloway, which 
is said to have been erected about 448 by St. Ninian, it 
may be well to bear in mind the close connection of 
Whithern with the See of Man in ancient times. The 
priory of Whithern was endowed with lands in this isle, for 
which the Prior was wont to do fealty to the lord*. 

How much of Manx church history might be found to 
hang upon the history of this little oratory ! How much 
of private history too may be attached to it! How many 
a mariner, owing his safety to the light streaming from 
yonder eastern window at the hour of evening prayer, or 
to the sound of the vesper bell swinging in that humble 
turret on a dark and stormy night, may have come to offer 
up his thanksgivings within the lowly roof with a fervour 
no less, but with a faith more pure, than those whose 
dripping garments and votive offerings were wont in still 

* At the Tynwald Court, held a.d. 1422, called by Sir John Stanley 
as Lord of the Isle, we find the Prior of Whithern in Galloway, the 
Abbot of Bangor, the Abbot of Sabol, and the Prior of St. Bede in 
Copeland, were called in but came not, therefore they were deemed 
by the Deemsters that they should come in their proper persons 
within forty days, and if they came not then all their temporali¬ 
ties to he seized into the Lord’s hands.—Sacheverell’s Account, 
p. 84. 


94 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


more ancient days to be suspended in the splendid marble 
temples of the Pagan sea-god* ! 

And wbat a testimony do these roofless walls, overspread 
with fern, and this holy area grown over with moss and 
nettles, bear to the decay of primitive piety, which reared 
even in wild districts so many houses of prayerf, whence 
also the waters of life gushed forth and refreshed from 
time to time the thirsty land! When may we hope for 
the restoration of spots once hallowed by such uses ? Such 
restorations would be both the evidences of new life in the 
church and the cherishers of it. 

At the northern extremity of this little islet of St. Mi¬ 
chael is a circular embattled fort, which, according to 
Chaloner J, was raised by James, the illustrious seventh 
Earl of Derby, as a protection to the harbour of Konalds- 
way. Over the doorway is an oblong stone with an earPs 
coronet in relief, and the date 1650, as I read it; but the 
third and fourth figures are very indistinct, and have had 
different values given to them by different parties §. If 
the date be 1603, as stated by Train, and the building is 

* “ Me tabula sacer 

Votiva paries indicat uvida 
Suspendisse potenti 

Vestimenta mans Deo.” 

Horace, Od. I. 5. 

t In the old Manx ballad of the early part of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury, there is a traditional statement that the oratories or quarterland 
chapels (in Manx treen caballyn) were built by St. German, but 
that afterwards St. Maughold, by throwing several quarterlands into 
one division, formed the seventeen regular parishes which we now 
have. 

X Chaloner’s Description of the Isle of Man, p. 31. 

§ Feltham reads the date 1667, which would bring the erection 
of the building to a period after the great rebellion. But Chaloner, 
writing in 1653, speaks of it as built by the late Earl of Derby. Eel- 
tham’s reading is thus plainly incorrect. 



OLD FORT. 


95 


to be attributed to the prudence of Queen Elizabeth when 
holding the island, as before noticed, we still have the 
difficulty of the coronet and the statement of a contempo¬ 
rary, Chaloner. 

The thickness of the walls is eight feet, but they are not 
solid throughout. Thirty years ago it was furnished with 
four iron cannons. A turret has been raised upon the 
wall on the eastern side as a lighthouse, in which, during 
the herring season, a light is kept burning from sunset to 


sunrise. 


96 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The port of Derbyhaven—Its great natural advantages.—Singularly 
embraces in its circuit every rock and soil in the island.—The 
battle-field of Ronaldsway.—Great events of the thirteenth cen¬ 
tury.—The Scottish conquest.—Richard Mandeville, the Irish 
freebooter.—The lower limestone fossils of Ronaldsway.—Skillicore 
bosses.—Great disturbance at Coshnahawin.—Valley of Santon- 
burn.—McCulloch in error. 

The port of Derbyhaven, which appears to have been 
anciently called Rognalwath, Ronaldswath, Ramsway and 
Rannesway, and so Ronaldsway, was formerly of consider¬ 
able importance, and with the northern harbours of Ramso, 
now Ramsey, shared a large portion of the traffic of the 
eastern side of the island. 

But times have indeed changed since the commence¬ 
ment of the eighteenth century, and there has been from 
that day forward a gradual increase of the tonnage enter¬ 
ing the harbour of Douglas, and a proportionate decrease 
in that entering the other ports of the island. The con¬ 
traband trade, then the erection of the pier at Douglas, 
and the restriction of import of all licensed goods to that 
harbour*, have latterly hastened the consummation. The 
circumstance also of the great owners of property in the 
immediate neighbourhood of Derbyhaven having a larger 
interest at Douglas operates disadvantageous^ to the 
former place. 

The Castletown people are content with their own har- 

* This restriction has within the last two years been partially 
removed. 


DERBY HA YEN. 


97 


bour for general purposes, and seem perfectly satisfied to 
be at the expense and risk of land-carriage from Douglas 
for articles of less urgent and more uncertain demand, and 
even some of the larger shops are but branches from head 
houses of business there. 

There are certainly very great capabilities in this har¬ 
bour of Derbyhaven, and it seems a great pity that they 
are not called into play. A breakwater was erected a few 
years ago on a ridge of limestone running out southwards 
from Ronaldsway-house; but though a great protection to 
small vessels lying in the inner harbour during a storm 
from the east, yet it can assist little towards the traffic of 
the place, as there is no pier for landing goods. 

A strong jetty thrown out for 100 or 150 yards, in a 
north-easterly direction into the bay from a point near the 
fort, would afford perfect security at all times to vessels of 
considerable burden; whilst a landing-pier, as a continua¬ 
tion of the high road at Derbyhaven into the inner har¬ 
bour, would afford a great convenience to the neighbour¬ 
hood, and supersede the frequent necessity for going round 
to the Castletown-pier for the purpose of unlading vessels. 
It would not require any very great outlay to effect this. 
The very best materials, the limestone both for building 
and burning, are on the spot, and, when finished, the 
harbour would be not only the best in a commercial point 
of view in the island, but probably the best as a harbour 
of refuge in the north-eastern portion of the Irish sea. 
At the same time it would be highly desirable to cut 
through the narrow isthmus of about 150 yards, sepa¬ 
rating Castletown-bay from Derbyhaven, and which con¬ 
sists only of sand, gravel, and boulder clay : by this means 
Derbyhaven would be rendered an immediately available 
port for Castletown, and whichever way the wind lay, 
vessels might find ingress or egress into either harbour. 


98 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Should this ever be effected, the result upon the exports 
of this part of the island must be highly advantageous. 

The great agricultural produce of the Isle of Man is 
from the northern area, in the neighbourhood of Ramsey, 
and the southern round about Castletown; the neighbour¬ 
hood of Peel furnishes also a considerable portion. The 
great mining district on South Barrule, as well as the 
great granitic boss there, is nearer to Derbyhaven than to 
Douglas the present chief port of shipment of the lead 
and the granite. Then we have the umber works at 
Ballasalla, and the lime from the several kilns in that 
neighbourhood, as w r ell as in Derbyhaven itself. We have 
again the black marble of Poolvash, which is wrought in 
Castletown, of which the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral are 
made, and for which there has lately been a renewed demand 
for purposes of ecclesiastical architecture, both on the island 
and in England. And, though last, not least, there is the 
fine mass of porphyry which has hitherto been untouched at 
the northern end of Langness, a rock harder and more 
durable than the granite; and if, on account of the diffi¬ 
culty of working, not generally available for building, yet 
an excellent material for roads, and one to which attention 
ought to be directed as a subject for export and for use on 
the island, in the neighbourhood of Douglas and the sandy 
districts of the north. 

A simple reference to the geological map of the southern 
limestone basin of the Isle of Man* will show that, with the 
exception of granite and Poolvash marble, every rock and 
soil in the island is contained within the limits of this fine 
bay. There is the clay schist in several varieties, forming 
St. Michael’s Islet and the eastern boundary of the bay. 
This is intersected with trap dykes and masses of porphyry, 
which protrude through them at several points along 
* See Plate III. 


RONALDSWAY. 


99 


shore, as well as at the northern point of Langness. It is 
singular to observe how the schist mantles round these 
bosses of porphyry, and how much they have been altered 
where in contact. In the southern corner of the bay we 
have the old red conglomerate resting unconformably on 
the schist, which here dips S. 80° E. at an angle of 20°; 
whilst the dip of the old red is N.W. magnetic. Pre¬ 
sently the limestone sets on; but proceeding westward we 
again for a few yards fall in with the old red conglomerate, 
which is brought up by one of those singular bosses which 
we shall have such frequent occasion to notice in this 
locality; the limestone from the crown of the boss having 
been denuded shows the nucleus of old red. We have 
then forming the bed of the bay, on its eastern side, the 
carboniferous limestone, on which reposes the boulder clay 
in the northern angle, and which also forms the holding 
ground at the entrance to the bay off St. MichaePs Isle, 
and then all round the bay above high water we have the 
drift- gravel and the sand of the more recent-raised beach. 

The northern corner of the bay adjoining Ronaldsway 
forms an interesting study for the geologist. The anti¬ 
clinal ridge upon which the breakwater is built is inter¬ 
sected at right angles by the two dykes which were noticed 
under the causeway joining St. MichaePs Isle with Lang¬ 
ness. The limestone is greatly altered and contorted, and 
as we proceed north-eastward the bosses on the surface 
become more important. We are in fact tracing along 
a line of disturbance, which, commencing near the caves on 
Langness, increases in intensity up to the Brough, and 
Coshnahawin at the mouth of the Santon river. 

Very near the limekilns, which are at the northern ex¬ 
tremity of Derbyhaven, the line of low water is the old red 
conglomerate coming out from under the limestone; but 
between the two series, or rather incorporated with the old 

f 2 


L.oFC. 


100 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


red, appears a tabular mass of trappean conglomerate or 
of quartz pebbles, apparently mixed up in a trappean 
matrix. The limestone overlying this bed is cracked and 
altered in an extraordinary degree, and I cannot but regard 
it as confirmatory of my view as to the origin of the bosses, 
thus to find traces of igneous action so closely connected 
with them. 

There is one remarkable fact which should not be over¬ 
looked, which is, that the boulder clay itself seems in 
some measure to have partaken of the metamorphosed 
character of the limestone. Patches of it here and there 
are hardened and cemented, and present a baked appear¬ 
ance, and have resisted the action of the sea. It is difficult 
to determine whether this has resulted from long contact 
with the ochreous masses of altered limestone, or from the 
escape of heated gases at some period of the boulder clay 
through cracks formed by the previous disturbances, or 
whether the alteration was coincident with those disturb¬ 
ances which we must thence class as belonging to the 
boulder period. The locality where this is particularly to 
be noted is one hundred yards north of the limekiln, and 
very near the stream from Ballahick, where, passing by 
the mill, it enters the sea in a small recess, which I have 
always known by the name of Bonaldsway Creek. There 
is a line of disturbance running from under the drift 
gravel which forms the battle-field of Eonaldsway, in 
a direction N. 80° E. magnetic, crossing the general strike 
of the beds for a distance of sixty yards, and then gradu¬ 
ally disappearing. Along this axis unequivocal tokens of 
igneous action are afforded, and parallel to it it is worth 
while to observe all the way to Coshnahawin a series of 
cracks and disturbances with the same evidences of meta¬ 
morphism about them. 

The battle-field of Ronaldsway, though little noted in 


AFFAIRS OF MAN. 


101 


British history, was once the scene of a memorable struggle 
for the liberties and independence of the Manx nation, 
and determined its fate. It may he well to take a review of 
the history of the isle for a few years preceding that event. 

When the usurper Reginald (the same who surrendered 
the isle to Pope Honorius—surrendered in fact that which 
did not belong to him,) was slain at the great battle of 
the Tynwald Hill, on St. Valentine's day, 1229*, the crown 
settled quietly on the head of the rightful king, Olave the 
Black, called in the Chronicon, Olave Godredson, being 
the son of Godred Kleining. He died in 1237, leaving 
three sons, Harold, Reginald, and Magnus. 

The former reigned ten years, and perished by shipwreck 
on the coast of Rudland, with his young bride, Cecilia, 
daughter of Haco, sovereign of Norway, and a numerous 
train of nobility, and Lawrence, then Bishop elect of Man. 

On the 6th of May in the following year Reginald as¬ 
sumed the reins of government, but was murdered in a 
meadow near the west end of Trinity Church in Rushen, 
by the knight Ivar, brother of the usurper Reginald. 

Magnus, the last surviving son of Olave, was at this 
time resident with his father-in-law, Ewen Konongr or 
John Dugalson, in one of the Hebrides, and the govern¬ 
ment was seized (a.d. 1250) by Harold, son of Godred 
Hon, and grandson of Reginald. 

Haco, hearing of this usurpation, summoned Harold to 
Norway, and there cast him into prison. He then de¬ 
puted Ewen Konongr to hold the sovereignty of Man 
during the minority of Magnus Olaveson. John, arriving 
in Man, and disembarking at Ronaldsway (a.d. 1250), 
proclaimed himself king of the Isles. The Manx, provoked 
at this presumption, rose in a body, attacked his army, 
* See Chronicon Manniae, p. 30. 


102 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


which was encamped on St. Michael's Isle, and totally de¬ 
feated them. 

Magnus himself was gladly received in 1252, and ac¬ 
knowledged king by the Manx nation at large, and re¬ 
ceived afterwards a confirmation of his right and title by 
the sovereign of Norway, 1254, and was knighted by 
Henry III. of England in 1256 *. 

The battle of Largs, Oct. 3, 1263, in which Alexander 
III. of Scotland so completely broke up the expedition of 
Haco, placed the isle at the mercy of the Scottish monarch; 
and Magnus, despairing of help from Norway, met Alex¬ 
ander in a conference at Dumfries, did homage to him, 
and obtained a charter to hold the island from the crown 
of Scotland. 

In 1265, on the 24th of November, died in Castle 
Rushen, Magnus, the ninth and last of the race of Godred 
Crovan, which for nearly 200 years had held the sceptre 
of the isle as viceroys to the monarch of Norway. He 
was buried in the church of St. Mary of Rushen, which had 
been finished and dedicated in the fifth year of his reign, 
by Richard “ Sodorensis Episcopus," and left no issue. 

The following year, Magnus, king of Norway, successor 
to Haco, ceded to the Scottish king his right and title to 
the Isle of Man and the Hebrides, in consideration of 4000 
marks sterling, in four yearly payments of 1000 marks 
each, and an annual quit-rent of 100 marks for ever. 

In the mean time (to use the words of Sacheverell), the 
widow of Magnus, a woman haughty and intriguing, and 
secretly in love with the knight Ivar (who by the murder 
of her brother-in-law Reginald, had cleared the way to the 
crown), thought him the fittest person to supply the vacancy. 

There was no lawful successor except the daughter of 
* See Chronicon Mannise, p. 40. 


SCOTCH CONQUEST. 


103 


Reginald, and she a child; the danger from Scotland seemed 
pressing, but what will not love and the temptation of a 
crown persuade men to ? Ivar, therefore, in the vigour of 
his age, gay, generous and popular, the boldest, the bravest, 
the most licentious, and yet the best of all the natives, 
one who had virtues enough to save, and vices enough to 
undo a nation, readily embraced the offer, and Mary* was 
secretly conveyed into England with all public deeds and 
charters by those who had the care of her, equally fearing 
the danger from abroad and at home. Ivar vigorously 
prepared for the defence of his newly-acquired govern¬ 
ment, and resolved at least to deserve, if not enjoy, the 
crown. But the Isle of Man could do little singly with 
the more potent kingdom of Scotland; for Alexander, 
having now reduced all the out-isles, sent a numerous 
army under Alexander of Paisley and John Comyne, who 
landed at Ronaldsway in the year 1270f- Ivar, though 
much inferior in numbers (being deprived of all foreign 
assistance), received them with a resolution natural to the 
Manx nation, stoutly fought and as bravely fell with the 
expiring liberties of his country, and with him 537 of 
the flower of the people. The monks of Rushen have 
preserved this number in the following doggerel epic 
verses— 

* This Mary in the year 1292 claimed the kingdom of the Isles, 
and did homage to Edward the First of England in Perth or St. 
John’s town. Though the Norwegian royalty descended in the 
male line, yet we find nearly 400 years after that, on the plea of 
the validity of Mary’s claim to the sovereignty of Man, sentence 
was pronounced in favour of the heirs general of Ferdinand Earl of 
Derby, against his brother, Earl William, though afterwards it was 
settled by the British Parliament in favour of the male line.—See 
Sacheverell’s Account, p. 60, and Chaloner’s History, p. 15; also 
p. 59, supra. 

f According to the Chronicon Mannise, 1275. 


104 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


L decies X ter et pente duo cecidere 

Mannica gens de te damna futura cave *. 

This distich might almost be deemed prophetic, for we 
find not many years after that the Manx suffered most 
severely from foreign enemies landing at this same spot. In 
May 1316, on Ascension day, Richard de Mandeville, and his 
brothers, John and Thomas, with a company of Irish free¬ 
booters, landed at Ronaldsway, and demanded of the Manx 
supplies of provisions, cattle and money. Their request 
being rejected, they formed themselves into two divisions, 
which marching up the country, again united at the foot 
of South Barrule; then uttering the Irish war-whoop, they 
fell upon the Manx who had there drawn up their forces to 
receive them. At the first onset the Manx fled in a body. 
The victorious Irish, roaming through the country, plun¬ 
dered it of every thing on which they could lay their hands. 
The sanctity of the venerable Abbey of Rushen availed 
nothing against this lawless company; they stripped it of 
all its furniture, flocks and cattle. Spending a month in 
this manner, and at their leisure digging up much silver 
which had been buried in various places, they stowed their 
vessels with the best effects of the country and returned 
safe home. 

The estate of Ronaldsway belonged to William Dhone, 
and at his execution as a traitor at Hango Hill was con¬ 
fiscated. It was afterwards restored to the family by an 
order of King Charles II. in council. 

The geologist will find the creek of Ronaldsway a rich 
depot of fossils of the lower limestone strata. With a 
good heavy hammer, having one face wedge-shaped, he 
may go in amidst the alternating beds of shale and lime¬ 
stone at low water, and, raising the layers, extract some of 

* Ten Ls thrice X with five and two did fall; 

Ye Manx, take care, or suffer more ye shall. 


SKILLICORE BOSS. 


105 


the rarer organisms ad libitum. He will find here Hete- 
ropora a beautiful branching coral, Turbinolia fungites, 
Cyathopkyllum megastoma, Cyathophyllum crassum, Orthis 
Sharpei, Productus giganteus and Productus hemisphcericus, 
several large encrinites and remarkable fucoids. 

It will be well for him to take hence a good collection, 
in order to contrast them with the newer limestone series, 
when he comes to study it at Poolvash in the centre of 
this great limestone basin. 

But the points of most interest for one occupied in the 
study more especially of the physical structure of this 
district, will be the examination of the cracks, disturb¬ 
ances, contortions, bosses and trap dykes, which lie be¬ 
tween this creek and the mouth of the Santon river*. Here 
are very plain indications of two epochs of disturbance, 
the axes of intenser action running in distinctly different 
directions. We have one axis of disturbance running 
S. 40° W., with cracks and faults at right angles to that 
direction, and this seems particularly to be connected with 
the bosses and trap-dykes; the other running S. 80° E., 
with cracks and faults at right angles, and this seems 
connected in some way with the protrusion of greenstone 
masses. The great difficulty is in determining which was 
the anterior disturbance. 

The great boss at Skillicoref is extremely interesting, 
from the manner in which it is intersected by a trap-dyke 
or assemblage of dykes. We have here a dyke, or rather 
a number of small cracks, filled with trap, and then uniting 
to form one dyke, which runs S. 85° E. magnetic on the 
line of the beds to the centre of the boss; it there sepa¬ 
rates again into two, one of which, after being a little 
contorted, is continued in a direction S. 80° E., the other 
running S. 50° E., and throwing out small branches which 
* See Plate VI. t Ibid. 


106 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


soon terminate. This latter presents evidence of great 
force exercised in the ascent of the fluid trap, the edges of 
the limestone beds being very sharply turned up along 
the dyke to the extent of half a foot on each side. 

The limestone is singularly broken up into rhomboidal 
blocks by cracks which cross each other in directions 
S. 40° W. and S. 30° E. But along the great line of 
disturbance, where the rocks are suddenly brought up and 
turned over on an axis, the metamorphism is most com¬ 
plete; and it is extremely difficult to determine to what 
class of rocks, limestone or old red conglomerate, the mass 
originally belonged. The beautiful variegated appearance 
of the rock has led to some attempts to work it as a marble 
quarry, which have been defeated by the large admixture 
of quartz, and the fractured character of the rock. 

The mouth of the Santon burn is one of the most pic¬ 
turesque spots with which I am acquainted in the Isle of 
Man. The valley down which the river runs into the sea 
is one of elevation, a great crack in the earth's crust in 
consequence of extreme tension across a saddle when the 
country was being elevated. Even an ordinary observer 
must mark how the salient points at one side of this lovely 
winding valley correspond to recesses on the opposite side 
of it; so that if the earth were to sink down again, we 
see at once that they would lock into each other just (to 
compare small things with great) as the teeth in a rat-trap 
when the edges approximate. The earth here in opening 
her mouth has exhibited a set of teeth, compared with which 
those possessed by the most monstrous Saurian that ever 
paddled in the secondary seas sink into utter insigni¬ 
ficance. 

We have before alluded to the beauty of this valley in 
its upper portion above Ballasalla or Eairy-bridge. The 
angler, as he comes rambling downwards from that bridge 


COSHNAHAWIN. 


107 


towards the sea, will greatly be reminded of the favourite 
scene of his friend Isaac Walton's special enjoyment—the 
Derbyshire Dovedale—save that the gorge is somewhat 
narrower and in places hardly permits the sweep of the rod 
which throws the deceitful fly upon the purling water of 
the burn. But then the splendid opening out of the gorge 
into the sea, and the chances of hooking the salmon which 
sport about its mouth,—these well compensate for the other 
deficiencies, as compared with the picturesque features of 
the Derbyshire trout-stream. 

Those water-worn caves which pierce yonder frowning 
crag, shattered and contorted as it has been by those 
masses of greenstone thrust up on either side,—how 
tempting the shade and retirement which they afford ! and 
the golden gorse in spring time, and the purple heather in 
autumn, with all manner of wild flowers, grace the opposite 
slope, and drop their perfume on the gentle sea-breeze 
which comes swelling up the glen. 

There is a romantic archway on the eastern side of the 
stream near its mouth*, where the claret-coloured schist 
is contorted upon an axis of disturbance. A little higher 
up, on opposite crags, as the poet sings— 

“ immortal without mother. 

Which stand as if outfacing one another ,—” 

are the remains of two forts, rude earthwork embankments, 
the names and reputation of which, if ever they had any, 
have long ago passed away, and are amongst the things 
which are not. Woe to the occupants of either, had their 
hold been forced! something worse than Hobson's choice 
awaited them : it was no question between fighting and 
running away; a full tide might give a bare chance; other- 

* See the view “ Coslmahawin at the mouth of the Santoubura.” 


108 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


wise he who leapt that precipice would never have lived to 
fight another day. 

The mass of limestone forming Coshnahawin Head, was 
sometime ago a puzzle to McCulloch, as appears in his 
account of the Western Isles of Scotland; at least he has 
committed to paper two singular errors in reference to it 
which have since been taken on trust, and copied by Dr. 
Mantell in his most interesting work, f Wonders of Geo¬ 
logy/ He has stated, that the mountain limestone of this 
area rests directly upon the slate, and he has adduced the 
limestone of Coshnahawin* as an instance of the crystal¬ 
line action of slaty cleavage passing upwards from slate 
into superincumbent limestone. 

It may at first sight appear singular to any one inspect¬ 
ing the sections + which I have given, in which the old red 
conglomerate is seen interposed between the limestone and 
the schist, how such a mistake could have been committed, 
and yet the error is easily explained. 

In the first place, at the time Dr. McCulloch wrote, the 
old red sandstone was grouped as a member of the carbo¬ 
niferous series; it remained for his two great northern 
fellow-countrymen, the authors respectively of 1 The Silu¬ 
rian System 3 and the ‘Old Red Sandstone/ to separate 
it into a system of its own and to work out in detail 
its separate members. Dr. McCulloch too had seen the 
old red as a formation of thousands of feet in thickness as 
it is developed in Scotland, spreading out over thousands 
upon thousands of acres : here, in this southern area, it can 
never be seen more than fifty feet thick, and its tilted 

* I believe this ought to be spelt Cas-ny-hawin, the foot of the 
waters^ 

t See Plate VII., sections 1, 2 and 3; and Plate VI., sections 2 
and 3. 





THE BROUGH. 109 

basset-edge may be walked across anywhere in a couple of 
hundred yards. 

Again, the subject of metamorphism of rocks had not at 
that time received the attention which has of late been 
bestowed upon it. The presumed slaty cleavage of the 
limestone is plainly due to the metamorphic action of the 
heated masses with which it has been connected at the 
period of disturbance. 

Again, at this particular spot the schist is singularly 
brought up and placed in contact with the limestone by 
two faults, one running S. 40° W., which is distinctly seen 
on the sea-shore at the mouth of the burn near the caves, 
in consequence of the different colour of the schist on each 
side of the fault; the other caused by the upheaval of the 
country on an axis running S. 80° E., of which the caves, 
and the natural arch on the opposite side of the stream are 
the immediate consequences. There are other disturbances 
at right angles to these directions which give a somewhat 
complicated character to the geology of this spot, but the 
general and total effect of all is plain; the limestone at the 
Head is on two sides placed in contact with the schist, de¬ 
nudation of the upheaved portion of the country has re¬ 
moved the limestone and old red conglomerate to the 
northward, and it is only by diligent searching at low- 
water that the conglomerate is discovered with a thin bas¬ 
set-edge coming up from under the limestone and there¬ 
fore plainly separating it from the schist. If however we 
mount the hill (the Brough) to the westward we shall dis¬ 
cover the conglomerate in great force forming a fine escarp¬ 
ment to the seaward with a very clear sequence into the 
carboniferous series, and with it dipping down towards the 
centre of this southern basin at Poolvash. 

The total lift of the bed of old red conglomerate by the 
two before-named faults combined is about 110 feet, the 


110 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


bed seen at the mouth of the river being about ten feet 
below high-water, and where it appears again on the 
Brough being 100 feet above it. Some five years ago 
I had the gratification of going over the ground, and 
pointing out the details of this my almost first discovery 
in the geology of this neighbourhood, with Count Keyser- 
ling, the illustrious States Geologist of Russia and com¬ 
panion in travel with our own Sir Roderick Murchison, and 
coadjutor with him and Mons. de Verneuil in the researches 
which have resulted in that most noble geological work, 
( Russia and the Ural Mountains/ His approval of this 
first essay was in itself a sufficient encouragement to pro¬ 
ceed with the details of the whole area, to which it affords 
the key. 

Before leaving this neighbourhood, the lover of the pic¬ 
turesque may make an attempt when the tide is out to 
cross the Santon burn at its mouth; and following the 
road which winds up the opposite bank, and tracing the 
edge of the low cliff for about a quarter of a mile north¬ 
eastward, he will come upon another little creek called 
Saltric, possessing a peculiar wildness about it, and at the 
same time, within a very small compass, a singular admix¬ 
ture of softened and harsh features in the same landscape. 
The recess in the coast is of a horse-shoe form, of which 
the horns are occupied by masses of schist and greenstone, 
a continuation of the same axis of disturbance which we 
have just noted at the mouth of the Santon burn and pre¬ 
viously at Seafield, which is a mile to the north-eastward 
of this point. 

In consequence of this axis of disturbance a synclinal 
depression has been formed a few hundred yards inland, 
but parallel to the coast: this depression has been filled up 
by the pleistocene-clay sand and gravel during the glacial 
period when the sea was at a higher relative level with the 


SALTRIC CREEK. 


Ill 


land. On the elevation of the island, the sea has worked 
its way in at a cross fracture and largely eroded the soft 
pleistocene* beds, whilst the harder schists and greenstone 
have been much more slowly acted upon. 

The inner portion therefore of the little bay swells out 
with a softened outline and presents deep rounded gullies 
clothed with tender herbage and mosses or blooming with 
furze, broom and heath; the entrance to it from the sea 
presenting bluff precipices and dark water-worn caves, a 
favourite resort of the jackdaw in spring time. Here she 
builds her nest and rears her young. 

* In this locality may be obtained, more abundantly than in any 
other part of this southern area, fragments of the fossils of the 
pleistocene period. 


112 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


CHAPTER IX. 

View from the Brough.—Varying composition of the pleistocene 
marls.—Return to Castletown.—Notice of recent raised beaches 
at various points along the coast.—Remarkable undulations of the 
limestone beds at the Stack of Scarlet caused by the protrusion 
of basaltic rocks.—Glacial striations, groovings and indentations. 
—Mud glaciers not solving the phenomena.—Recent action of 
littoral ice at Cape Blomidon in the Bay of Fundy affording a 
clue to the true solution.—Probable gradual sinking of this area 
at the beginning of the glacial period. 

The view from the Brough is sufficiently pleasing to repay 
the toil of the ascent, its height being not more than 160 
feet above the level of the sea. The most toilsome way is 
really the most picturesque. About 400 yards above the 
caves the Silverburn makes a sudden angle, and its course 
from running nearly magnetic north is directed more to 
the east. The face of the valley is very steep here, but 
after mounting 100 feet we come to the top of the schist 
and meet the old red conglomerate very finely developed 
as a mass of boulders and pebbles of quartz, quartz-rock 
and grauwacke, in at first a deep ochreous setting, which, 
as we rise still higher, becomes at length a gray carbona¬ 
ceous matrix. A station on the top of this old red con¬ 
glomerate, looking into the valley at the angle, presents an 
interesting scene both seaward and landward. In the 
latter direction we may catch glimpses of the course of the 
Silverburn for several miles up towards the mountains, and 
the structure of the valley is easily ascertained. 

Proceeding onward towards the summit of the Brough 
we soon cross the basset-edge of the carboniferous limestone, 
and may observe its dip towards the centre of the basin. 


PLEISTOCENE MARLS. 


113 


The composition of the Brough itself may next engage 
our attention. It belongs to the boulder formation, which 
seems to attain to a considerable thickness upon it, if we 
may judge of it by a comparison of the height of the hill 
with the depth under its summit, at which, according to 
the dip of the beds, we should meet with the limestone. 
The extreme red colour of the soil on the hill would indi¬ 
cate that it is formed in great part of the denuded por¬ 
tions of the escarpment of the old red conglomerate which 
appears to the eastward above Coshnahawin Head. This 
is another evidence of the extremely local character of the 
lower portion at least of the boulder-clay-formation. As 
we proceed westward across this limestone basin we shall 
observe how it changes in composition, and tallies in che¬ 
mical character, as well as in lithological appearance and 
colour, with that of the subjacent rock prevailing a very 
little to the eastward of any spot on which we may fix for 
its examination*. 

We may descend from the Brough to Ballahick, and 
thence get upon the high road between Ballasalla and 
Castletown, or we may take the road to Ronaldsway, and 
begin there to examine the evidences of the last raised 
beach, which we may then trace very distinctly all round 
the coast where there is no lofty cliff presented to the sea¬ 
ward. Just by the Mill at Ronaldsway we may observe 
perhaps in the bank an accumulation of a bed of sea-shells 
of recent species. We have before noticed the beach at 

* Through the kindness of my friend, George Kemp, Esq., M.D., 
of St. Peter’s College, Cambridge, I am enabled to give the per¬ 
centage of lime contained in the clay at different places on the 
Island. A reference to the geological map and sections will show 
at once its value, as bearing on the present question of the origin of 
the boulder formation; and it may prove acceptable to agriculturists, 
as indicating the best localities for marls containing the largest 
quantity of lime. See Appendix, Note I. 


114 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Hango Hill, and in proceeding thence towards Castletown 
we may perceive it very continuously at the back of the 
houses which front towards the sea all the way to the 
Bowling Green. 

Let us set out again from Castletown towards the Stack 
of Scarlet. We have the same beach, with plenty of shells 
all the way round from Knockrushen by Sea-view and be¬ 
yond Scarlet House. The same thing occurs at Poolvash, 
Strandhall, Mount Gawne, and Port St. Mary. 

In passing from Castletown to the Stack of Scarlet, the 
series of trap-dykes which are seen between high and low 
water, the undulations on the surface of the limestone and 
its frequently altered character, will certainly attract atten¬ 
tion. The great Knockrushen dyke, in width twenty-one 
feet (sending out three other smaller ones), I have supposed 
to be the continuation of the more southerly of the two 
great dykes which intersect Langness, and which we meet 
with again at Poolvash divided into three branches. 

It is however evident, as we approach the Stack, that 
another disturbance than that of the trap-dykes has affected 
this portion of the limestone basin. The direction of the 
undulating ridges is changed, and the undulations become 
more frequent and marked. The long swell becomes the 
crested wave just ready to break upon the shore. 

Close by the limekilns the contortions become very vio¬ 
lent, and the great wonder seems to be, that the limestone 
beds have not snapped under the extreme tension. There 
is merely a jagged crack running down the crown of the 
undulation, though its curvature is as rapid as the rim of 
an ordinary sized carriage-wheel. Either the superincum¬ 
bent pressure must have been excessive, or the beds were 
in an extremely new and plastic condition at the time of 
the contortion. 

At these limekilns it is worth while to linger a little, 





GLACIAL MARKS. 


115 


both for the fine view here afforded of Castletown bay and 
the adjacent country, and also to observe the groovings 
and scratchings on the surface of the limestone where the 
quarriers have removed the boulder-clay. 

There are three kinds of markings to be noticed; the 
deeper polished groovings , the striations or finer scratches 
upon the groovings, and the indentations. The direction of 
the first is very nearly magnetic east and west, a point north 
of east and south of west; the second, though generally 
having the same direction as the groovings, sometimes cross 
them at acute angles; the third have the appearance of 
being produced by some hard, sharp-pointed object brought 
suddenly in contact, grooving the surface for an inch or 
two, and then removed. 

If we examine the action of the breakers upon the sur¬ 
face of the limestone, wherever it is exposed at the present 
time, we shall find the result very different to that 'seen on 
the rocks under the boulder clay. We have the proof 
plain before us, about one hundred yards south-westward 
of these limekilns, nearer the Stack of Scarlet, on a shelf 
of rock which is intersected by a trap dyke. The surface 
of the limestone, which is just exposed to the sweep of the 
waves at the highest spring tides, or when a storm rages 
from the south, is drilled with a series of holes of every 
size and depth. How are they formed ? Look at that 
pebble or heap of pebbles which lies at the bottom of one 
of these clear briny pools. These are the tools with which 
the work is done; the natural augers which have pierced 
the solid stone. The effect is thus produced. The action 
of the atmosphere on a small crack or flaw in the lime¬ 
stone (and being in such close contact with trap-rock, 
and contorted so fantastically, no wonder that it is in some 
places much cracked!) produces a small hole. A little 


116 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


pebble driven on by the breaker lodges in it: the next 
high tide sets the pebble in motion, and the instrument 
begins the drilling operation. As the hole increases, other 
and bigger pebbles or hard boulders find a lodgement 
there, and assist in widening and deepening the hole till 
it is too deep for the refluent surge to be capable of moving 
the collection at the bottom, and then of course the action 
ceases. Now here is plainly a very different result from that 
found on the surface of the rock under the boulder clay. 
Indeed, I am not aware of any instance in this neighbour¬ 
hood where the sea now produces anything like the groo¬ 
vings, scratchings and indentations which we are now con¬ 
sidering. 

It has been suggested that the effect has been brought 
about by the sliding forwards of the entire mass of the 
boulder series upon the inclined surface of the limestone 
beds; in fact, the boulder clay has been spoken of as a 
kind of mud glacier, which, rolling onwards, has abraded 
the subjacent rocks, and left the traces of its course in those 
groovings and striations which in so many places meet the 
eye. Such an explanation might possibly stand had we 
to do simply with groovings, or with the striations only 
parallel to them; yet even in this case the objection 
would have to be met, that these do not always coincide 
with the dip of the rock; and further, that since it is now 
pretty generally allowed that the motion of glaciers is due 
to gravitation, and as this would be specially the case in 
the so-called mud-glacier, it would require a rather nice 
engineering adjustment of the inclines and application of 
forces for the motion to be propagated through several 
miles up one hill and down another to an extent which 
greatly taxes one’s credulity. But the grand difficulty 
which still remains on this hypothesis is to solve the 


CAPE BLOMIDON. 


117 


problem of the cross-scratches and the indentations. I 
ha\e never heard of such a solution, and I certainly cannot 
offer one. 

And why should we go out of our way to frame hypo¬ 
theses to account for these marks upon the rocks, made at 
the period of the boulder deposit, when we have similar 
phenomena to adduce of a recent date, where the cause 
and effect are distinctly set before our eyes in the closest 
possible connection ? 

Mr. Lyell has supplied us with the necessary data for 
determining the problem in his recent travels in North 
America*. Strolling one day along the beach, at the foot 
of Cape Blomidon, in the Bay of Fundy, he was startled 
by observing, upon a ledge of soft sandstone, some recent 
furrows, the exact counterpart of the grooves of ancient 
date attributed to glacial action. Some of these furrows 
were half an inch broad, and very nearly parallel; others 
were rather divergent, and crossed each other. The direc¬ 
tion of the parallel furrows coincided with that of the 
shore at this point. His guide was asked if ever he had 
seen much ice at this spot. He replied, that in the pre¬ 
ceding winter of 1841 he had seen ice, in spite of the tide, 
which ran at the rate of ten miles an hour, extending in 
one uninterrupted mass from that side of the bay to the 
opposite coast of Parisborough, and that the icy rocks, 
heaped on each other, and frozen together, or packed at 
the foot of Cape Blomidon, were often fifteen feet thick, 
and were pushed along when the tide rose over the sand¬ 
stone ledges. He also stated that blocks of a black amyg¬ 
daloid, containing numerous geodes coated with quartz 
crystals, fell from the summit of the cliff, were frozen into 
the ice, and moved along with it. Need we say, that Mr. 
Lyell, like any other man whose mind has been trained in 
* Lyell’s Travels in North America, vol. ii. p. 1/2. 


118 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


the inductive principles of the Baconian philosophy, hesi¬ 
tated not an ihstant as to the agent which had produced 
the groovings and furrows upon the ledge of soft sandstone 
in the Bay of Bundy ? 

And need we hesitate to ascribe the groovings, striations 
and indentations on the limestone at Scarlet and else¬ 
where, wherever the boulder-clay is removed, to the same 
agency ? 

We must again recur to the circumstance so often before 
stated, that at the period of the boulder formation the Isle 
of Man was a cluster of islands, and that powerful currents 
in all probability swept through the channels between 
them; that tide-ways would be formed parallel to the 
coast-line, and that the climate was, to judge by the fossils 
included in the drift, of a more Arctic character than it is 
at the present time. Is it very difficult to connect the 
phsenomena of the grooved, striated and indented rocks 
with the action of shore-ice, ice-floes and icebergs ? 

It appears to me highly probable that at the commence¬ 
ment of the boulder period there was a gradual sinking 
of this area: successively, therefore, the points of dif¬ 
ferent degrees of elevation were brought within the in¬ 
fluence of the sea, and exposed to the rake of the tides 
charged with masses of ice which had been floated off 
from the surrounding shores, and bearing in their under 
surfaces mud, gravel and fragments of hard rock. If the 
basset-edge of a rock were opposed to the drifting cur¬ 
rents, it is probable that their effect would be to detach 
pieces from it, or to break up the beds, especially when 
they consisted of alternations of soft shale with limestone. 
Thus an accumulation of mud, with blocks of limestone 
and the boulders torn from the old red conglomerate, 
would be constantly taking place in the hollows, and the 
sea-bottom would gradually be filled up. If the rock 


LOADED ICE. 


119 


over which the ice-charged current flowed presented no 
serious obstacle, if it were for instance one of the lime¬ 
stone domes or bosses which are so numerous here,—then, 
instead of tearing the beds in pieces, the effect of a mass 
of loaded ice grounded upon it would be to polish, groove 
and scratch the surface; and though the general direction 
of these marks would be that of the great tide-ways, yet 
so long as the rock was subject to the extremes of high 
and low water (just as at the present time the Carrig boss 
is in the centre of Poolvash Bay), we can readily conceive 
how the ice-charged breakers might produce scratches in 
auy direction. Afterwards, as the submergence of the land 
proceeded, and these bosses became placed at greater 
depths below the sea-level, they would be beyond the 
reach of the merely scratching influence of shore-ice, but 
still suffer from the digs and thumps of icebergs, and by 
such blows would the indentations and those furrows, which, 
from being very deep and rough, gradually die out, be 
produced. 

In the separate detail of these operations we may very 
possibly have erred; in the opinion of some, there may 
have been no depression of land, but on the contrary, eleva¬ 
tion ; or the polished furrows may be attributed to icebergs 
and the identations to shore-ice ; but the general theory 
which seeks for the solution of these phenomena in the 
action of ice, in some shape or other, floating in marine 
currents, does certainly not tax our credulity to any un¬ 
reasonable extent. 

Having spoken of the manner in which the sea-bottom 
was being filled up in the glacial period, it is easily under¬ 
stood how these furrowed and scratched bosses also became 
ultimately covered up with the accumulated glacial de¬ 
posits, and how these marks have been preserved from 
erosion at a subsequent time, when this area w r as again 


120 


THE ISLE OP MAN. 


upheaved. The foreign rocks of the boulder period are 
plainly the produce of erratic bergs detached from more 
distant shores. 

About sixty or seventy yards to the north of the lime¬ 
kilns is the boulder of porphyritic greenstone, to which 
allusion has before been made as having probably been 
detached from the mass of similar rock at the northern 
extremity of Langness, and drifted across Castletown-bay. 
The scratches and groovings on the surface of the rock at 
the limekilns point directly to that same spot on Lang- 
ness. But as it may be argued that the current was as 
likely to have flowed from the magnetic west as from the 
east, it is desirable to state that there is no distinct trace 
in the boulder-clay at the limekilns of the rocks which lie 
to the westward of that point, viz. the trap—tuff and breccia 
which extend from the Stack of Scarlet to Poolvash Bay, 
and over which the drifting current would have passed 
had it come from the westward. It is at any rate a sin¬ 
gular circumstance that we do not meet with these rocks, 
and it is not readily to be accounted for on the supposi¬ 
tion that the currents of that period were solely due to the 
ebb and flow of the tide. At this very spot, however, we 
fall in with pebbles of foreign rocks in the boulder clay, 
which must have come from a great distance, from the 
shores of Cumberland and the south of Scotland; we have 
for instance fragments of the grit of the coal measures. 
Now all this leads to the conviction of one great current 
setting down from the Solway Frith upon these shores, 
and overpowering the effects of the local currents caused by 
the flux and reflux of the tide. The origin of such a cur¬ 
rent is at present a mere matter of speculation; we dare 
only point to the evidences of its existence. 

On the hypothesis of a gradual depression of the land 
and sea-bottom, it is easy to see that as long as any par- 



THE GREAT CURRENT. 


121 


ticular surface was within the direct influence of the tide 
(lying, we will say, between high and low water), traces of 
that influence might be left on it, in scratches varying in 
direction from that of the prevailing great current, as 
indicated by the polished furrows and groovings; yet 
afterwards, as the submergence proceeded, and the surface 
of rock was placed at some depth below the level of the 
sea, all the detrital matter, the accumulation of the boulder 
clay deposited on it, would be the product of the great 
current only, and this appears to have flowed from the 
magnetic east. 


122 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


CHAPTER X. 

The trap rocks of Scarlet.—Evidences of successive volcanic erup¬ 
tions.—Great thickness of trappean beds.—Fossils of the trap- 
tuff.—The Posidonian schist interposed in it.—Probable extent 
and duration of the black marble quarries.—The economy of their 
working.—The Poolvasli limestone.—Great abundance in it of the 
fossils of the Lower Scar limestone of Yorkshire.—Pleistocene 
beds at Strandhall.—Singular stalactitic concretions. 

If the hieroglyphics which we have just been endeavouring 
to decipher at the limekilns remind us that there has been 
a period when the great agent employed in giving its phy¬ 
sical contour and character to this area was ice, we have a 
chapter which has been stereotyped in a frame of molten 
rocks hard by at the Stack of Scarlet, which declares that 
the intensity of volcanic fire has also been exerted on the 
same object. 

The undulations which we have noticed as increasing in 
number and intensity towards this point are suddenly in¬ 
tercepted by a series of igneous trappean rocks of every 
character and description, from a light pumice and volcanic 
ash to solid columnar basalt. 

First of all we fall in with a compact trap-dyke of five 
feet in width running nearly north and south magnetic 
and intersecting the limestone; thirty yards further to 
the westward is another large dyke, or assemblage of 
dykes, running N. 30° W., and the limestone appears 
thrown down violently towards it, and masses of it are en¬ 
tangled in the trap and metamorphosed. Proceeding eleven 
yards further to westward we come upon a mass of amyg- 


TRAP ROCKS OF SCARLET. 


123 


daloid, and this abuts against an isolated patch of altered 
limestone which has been raised into a dome or boss rather 
more than thirty yards across; round this boss and en¬ 
veloping it like the coats of an onion are beds of trap-tuff 
or volcanic ash , and upon these a mass of trap-breccia. All 
these beds appear to have been broken up by the pro¬ 
trusion of the basaltic mass terminated in the Stack, and 
it would seem as if through the openings thus caused in the 
earth's crust another accumulation of trappean mud or ash 
had been poured forth which rests across the upturned edges 
of the previously erupted beds. We may perhaps some¬ 
times have seen a thick coat of ice on the surface of a canal 
broken up by the passage of a boat and piled in masses on 
either side, and then frozen in a second time, so that the 
fragments of the first freezing stood bristling up edgeways 
at every conceivable angle and presented fantastic groups of 
miniature sierras. Now something of a similar picture is 
set before us in these trappean beds at Scarlet Stack. The 
scenery is extremely wild and picturesque, though the scale 
is so limited in its extent; a miniature volcanic mountain 
with traces of separate convulsions and outpourings of vol¬ 
canic products. But the volcano was subaqueous which 
afforded the materials accumulated here, or at any rate it 
was so near the sea that the mass of ashes and scorise which 
were ejected fell at once into the waters, were borne along 
by the currents, and deposited in regular layers of stratifi¬ 
cation over the sea-bottom. 

I have never been able to make out with certainty where 
the volcanic vent was that emitted the trappean materials 
first deposited, though I have conjectured that it was a pro¬ 
longed chasm extending from the Stack of Scarlet into Pool- 
vash Bay. We have but a mere strip of these rocks along 
the shore between high and low water to judge by, and the 
whole country has suffered so much from denudation that 

g 2 


124 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


' > n 

we cannot always be certain where the denser masses 
have originally been. That there was afterwards a great 
convulsion along an axis in this direction is very evident, 
and also that it was this which originated the more violent 
contortions of the strata and was connected with the for¬ 
mation of the basaltic pile of the Stack; and that still sub¬ 
sequently there was an outpouring of similar volcanic matter 
to that at first accumulated in this basin, but enveloping 
altered fragments of the former eruption as well as of car¬ 
boniferous limestone by which a species of breccia was 
formed; this is all pretty plain as to the general statement, 
but it is not always so easy to determine of two contiguous 
masses of the trappean formation to which of these periods 
they belong. It appears also most probable, that at the 
period of the great convulsion just alluded to there was so 
much heat evolved (perhaps with acid gases) as to alter 
considerably the character of the adjacent rocks. The 
metamorphosis is so complete in some instances as to 
render it difficult at first sight to determine of a piece 
of rock whether it is altered limestone or true trap. 
Such a result may arise from the circumstance which will 
presently be more particularly noticed, that at the period of 
the deposit of the volcanic ash at the bottom of the sea the 
ordinary calcareous deposit was also proceeding, and the 
resulting beds were a mixture of trappean with carbonaceous 
matter. Such a rock altered in various degrees must ne¬ 
cessarily present appearances of a passage from true lime¬ 
stone into true trap. 

The view from the summit of the Stack of Scarlet is very 
striking. We are standing on a pile of basaltic columns, 
not so magnificent or distinct certainly as those of the 
Giant’s Causeway in the north of Ireland, but exhibiting 
the same characteristics; the sail-clad sea is spread almost 
entirely around, and at high water completely isolates the 

























11 ■ 1 

* 

' 






























. 














































STACK OF SCARLET. 


125 


mass. To the extreme west the Calf of Man with the Bur- 
rough and the Eye rock stretch far down into the Irish Sea, 
appearing from this point as it did from Langness, simply 
a prolongation of the Mull Hills. The bold front of Spanish 
Head rears itself aloft, and casts its black shadow athwart 
the waters of Poolvash Bay; then the precipitous Head of 
Brada to the north of Port Erin, from which (with the ex¬ 
ception of the deep chasm in which lies Flesh wick Bay) we 
have a continuation of the insular chain to the north-east, 
including the more elevated points of Irey-na-Lhaa and 
South Barrule. The northern mountains of the island as 
seen from this point appear well clustered together, and 
form a fine background to Castletown and its bay, at the 
head of which the college facing in this direction is seen to 
great advantage. Sweeping round to the east, Derbyhaven 
with its white-washed cottages and herring-house, then the 
fort and ruined oratory on St. MichaePs Isle, come into 
view, and quite round to the south-east we have the round 
tower on Langness. 

The contortions of the limestone at Scarlet are well seen 
hence*; the smooth surface of the beds, and their step-like 
face where opposed to the denuding action of the sea, are 
finely contrasted with the rugged character of the trap 
rocks, and the isolated mass of the crystalline altered lime¬ 
stone nearer to us. The very violent contortion of an ap¬ 
parently detached portion of the dark limestone enveloped 
in the trap-tuff, and jammed up against the outburst of 
basalt which terminates in the Stack, is particularly inter¬ 
esting, and catches the eye from this point when the rocks 
are laid bare at low water. 

The fault before mentioned running N. 35° W. magnetic 
enables us to determine pretty nearly the thickness of the 
lower limestone series in this part of the basin. 

* See the view, “ Castletown from the Stack of Scarlet.” 


126 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


I have measured accurately the thickness of this lime¬ 
stone from low water mark, spring tides, to the black shaly 
bed which appears just to underlie the Poolvash limestone, 
and this amounts to 129 feet. I cannot add more than 50 
feet from the low water mark to the base of the limestone 
series, as the old red conglomerate at the south-western 
end of Langness runs out into Castletown Bay a great 
distance and at a low angle; so that we may put down in 
round numbers 180 feet for the dark limestones and shales 
at the Stack of Scarlet. 

The upper portion of the isolated and altered patch of 
limestone nearest the Stack appears by the included fossils, 
as far as they can be made out, to belong to the light- 
coloured Poolvash limestone, but the lower portion may 
readily be observed as being the same with the black beds 
to the northward of the protruded amygdaloid and trap 
which have isolated this limestone boss. It is very unfor¬ 
tunate that at this point (where, in consequence of the re¬ 
moval of the drift-gravel and boulder clay, we have a distinct 
view of the order of superposition in the limestone series) 
the rocks should have been so much altered from their or¬ 
dinary character. It is the more unfortunate because the 
junction between the upper and lower series of limestones 
in this basin is everywhere covered up by the tertiary for¬ 
mations ; or wherever along this line of fault, running from 
Scarlet to Strandhall in the north-west, of Poolvash Bay, 
they are brought up to view, they are both metamorphosed 
in such a manner as to render it somewhat difficult to de¬ 
termine whether the passage from one to the other was 
gradual or sudden. Such evidence as we have is in favour 
of the latter supposition. It is very plain that some decided 
change took place in the character of the sea-bottom of 
that period, either in consequence of gradual filling up, or, 
as seems equally probable, by volcanic elevation, which ren- 


CROMWELL^ WALK. 


127 


dered it a fit area for the development of organized life to 
a greater extent and of a more diversified character than 
hitherto. To be fully convinced of this fact, let us just 
before parting with them observe carefully the fossils of 
the upper portion of the lower dark limestone group. 

There is a great dearth of fossils here, and the few which 
we find are of large species:—viz. Caninia gigantea of 
Michelin*, Orthoceras giganteus, Nautilus complanatus and 
Goniatites Henslowii; the two latter were named origi¬ 
nally from specimens found at this spot which are now in 
the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge and are almost 
uniquef. The Brachiopodous Mollusks are extremely rare. 
We shall find the reverse to be the case when we get into 
the Poolvash limestone series. Let us start thither. 

The summary which we must give of appearances at the 
Stack of Scarlet is, that there were certainly two eruptions 
or disturbances; the one producing cracks and faults run¬ 
ning about S. 35° E. and N. 35° W. magnetic, with others 
at right angles to this direction; another producing cracks 
and faults running S. 15° E. and N. 15° W., with others 
at right angles to this direction. The latter was probably 
contemporary with the trap-dykes which intersect this area. 

As we pass along the shore the great thickness of the 
trappean deposit seems to come out in a more striking man¬ 
ner, and presents scenery quite peculiar to itself, whose 
wildness and desolateness, though on so small a scale, it is 
impossible to realize from mere description. This is par¬ 
ticularly the case at a spot familiarly known by the name 
of Cromwell's Walk, where the action of the sea, aided by 
the peculiar condition of these beds, which have a tendency 

* I am indebted for this identification to Count Keyserling. 

t There is also a large fucoid or perhaps zoophyte (Calamopora 
infiata ?) which is distributed very extensively over two of the beds. 


128 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


to split up into rhomboidal masses,has wrought deep chasms, 
which after all do not discover the base of the formation*. 
It is however very interesting to mark the regularity of 
stratification in this trap-tuff or trappean ash, and the evi¬ 
dences it presents of a quiet deposit of the ash along with 
the ordinary carboniferous limestone of this area. We 
begin to see this first in a deep gully 100 yards north¬ 
westward of Cromwell's Walk, where there is a thin bluish- 
coloured bed low down in the tuff, which appears in every 
respect like a mixture of limestone and trap. If we follow 
the rise of this bed towards the north-west, we come to an¬ 
other denuded recess just under the stone shed which has 
been built on a prominent point of the tuff. In this we have, 
rising on a boss, a thick bed of black schistose limestone 
which is completely enveloped in the trappean beds and 
appeal's to dip under them in all directions; but as the boss 
is much broken and disturbed, we cannot be quite certain 
of this latter statement, more particularly as there is another 
bed of similar limestone I believe higher up in the series, as 
well as a thin band of the same rock, consisting mostly of 
black cherty nodules of a still more recent date. 

My opinion at present is, that this black schistose lime¬ 
stone, which here appears low down in the trap-tuff, is the 
same as the Posidonian schist of Poolvash, though, from the 
circumstance of there being, as it would seem, three beds of 
this black limestone and the whole district much disturbed, 
it is hardly right to speak confidently. Amongst the dis¬ 
turbed trappean beds for instance, close upon the Stack of 
Scarlet, there is a contorted fragment of black schistose 
limestone, but it is quite impossible to fix the bed to which 
it belongs. 

With some little trouble a small dyke may be made out 
intersecting all these trappean beds between high and low 
* It is at this point certainly not less than 50 feet thick. 


TRAPPEAN ASH. 


129 


water, and its protrusion seems to have contorted the neigh¬ 
bouring beds; it runs hence N. 46° W. in a line for the 
Carrig rock in Port St. Mary Bay, and is probably the same 
as that which appears in the schist at the mouth of the 
Colby river near Kentraugh. 

The trappean beds present a very singular brecciated ap¬ 
pearance at a point where the shore begins to take a more 
northerly direction. It is a species of conglomerate rock, 
of which the inclosed boulders seem to be altered limestone. 
Here also we find masses of the black schist enveloped in 
the trappean beds and quite cherty. 

Along the high water mark the strata have been much 
dislocated, and there is evidently the continuation of the 
line of fault from the Stack of Scarlet. But between high 
and low water the beds are very regular, and dip at a low 
angle in a direction for Port St. Mary N. 56° W. magnetic. 

On the shore near the pile of stones erected by the 
Trigonometrical Survey, we have rather a large develop¬ 
ment of the trappean limestone beds, in which sometimes 
the trappean ash is the prevailing ingredient, at others the 
carbonate of lime. But the most interesting circumstance 
is, that we meet with organic remains regularly imbedded 
not only in the limestone, but in the trappean ash; they are 
chiefly corals and crinoidea, and are the newest of the palaeo¬ 
zoic fossils occurring on the Isle of Man; they are rather 
abundant than otherwise, though the eye does not readily 
catch the particular beds in which they occur. 

It is very readily seen that the black schistose beds are 
lenticular, and that the black mud of which they are com¬ 
posed was deposited in hollows and a shallow sea; indeed, 
from the manner in which the great Posidonian schist bed 
at Poolvash, which is wrought as a marble quarry, thins out 
round the bosses of limestone which appear just at high 
water mark, it seems probable that the configuration of the 

g 5 


130 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


sea-shore in this immediate locality was the same at that 
particular period as it is now. 

There is a ruined workshop of the marble-cutters at a 
point where the shore turns northward to form the inlet 
which is generally called ‘ par excellence 3 Poolvash *, and 
it is here that the great black schistose limestone bed rapidly 
attains, as it dips into the sea, a thickness which has not yet 
been pierced, though at the back of the building a few yards 
to the south we find it only a foot thick, and seeming to die 
out amongst the trappean beds inland. It is an important 
point for the geologist to observe and to trace the continuity 
of this thin bed, having the trap-tuff below and above it, 
as it is the only evidence we have of the reality of the in¬ 
terpolation of the great Posidonian schist bed in the trap¬ 
pean formation. The circumstance of our observing all 
along the coast of this bay the black schist reposing at once 
on the limestone f, would lead at first to the belief that the 
passage from the one to the other was direct and uninter¬ 
rupted. But a happy denudation of the beds near this 
workmen's shed shows, that after some disturbance of the 
limestone the trap-tuff was deposited in hollows and bays 
which it filled up, and that then the mud of the Posidonian 
schist was thrown down so as to overlap the line of junction 
of the trap-tuff and limestone and thus overspread both 
formations. Perhaps a closer examination may show, that 
just before the deposit of the Posidonian schist there was a 
second slight disturbance of the sea-bottom, and hence the 
rapid thickening to seaward of this bed. 

In consequence of the extensive denudation which has 
taken place over this area, it is impossible to determine the 
thickness of the accumulating trap-tuff superior to the great 
Posidonian schist bed. As measured near Scarlet Head it 

* The bay of death, from the Manx Poyll, a pool, and Baase, death, 
t See section to ground plan in Plate V. 


POSIDONIAN SCHIST. 


13 L 


was certainly not less in that locality than 60 feet, and it 
includes, as we have noticed, other beds of black cherty 
limestone and trappeo-limestone beds, and beds containing 
organic remains. There are also overspreading masses of 
a trap-breccia which contains lumps of the altered subjacent 
rocks, and there are trap-dykes intersecting all these beds 
which probably overflowed their surface and added to their 
thickness, though we have no distinct evidence of the 
passage of these dykes into overlying trap, so far as I have 
hitherto observed them. 

This immediate locality is much intersected with these 
trap-dykes, to the protrusion of which I attribute the great 
contortions and the mammillated appearance of the beds of 
Posidonian schist*. There is a small dyke, one foot wide, 
close under the marble-mason's ruined workshop just men¬ 
tioned ; to the northward of that a few yards, another 6 feet 
wide ; and thirty yards still further north, one of 21 feet in 
width. The general direction of these is about N. 15° W. and 
S. 15° E. I presume that these are a continuation of the 
dykes observed at the Stack of Scarlet disappearing under the 
drift in this direction. Again, at the mouth of the stream 
from Balladoole, where the surface of the Posidonian schist is 
remarkably studded with bosses, we have a dyke which seems 
first to run hence N. 15° W.magnetic for some little distance, 
and then turns N. 35° W., and is probably the most south¬ 
erly of the three which we meet with in the little creek op¬ 
posite to which the road from Balladoole comes out upon 
the shore. I conjecture this to be a branch of the great 
Knockrushen dyke, and thus a continuation of the more 
southerly of the two notable dykes which intersect Langness + . 

The Posidonian schist is so important a bed in an eco¬ 
nomical point of view, that I have dwelt rather largely upon 
it, in order that its true character and probable extent may 
* See Plate V. t See Plate II. 


132 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


be known. Since the days when Bishop Wilson caused 
to be quarried here the steps of St. PauPs Cathedral in 
London, a great inroad has been made upon the workable 
portion of it. The great depth at which it is in some places 
buried under the trap-tuff, the contortion and cracking 
which it has experienced in others, and its alteration for 
some feet where in contact with the trap- dykes; again, its 
thinning out inland, and the circumstance of the thicker 
beds only lying below high water mark,—all combine to 
make the exhaustion of the quarry as a remunerative invest¬ 
ment a very possible thing, though very many years must 
elapse at the present rate of working ere this can take place. 
From the facility with which it is wrought into chimney- 
pieces, tomb-stones, steps, &c., it is evident that if it were 
better known in England a large demand would probably 
arise. It does not however take a natural polish in conse¬ 
quence of its soft character. A kind of black varnish is put 
upon the objects which are wrought out of it, and in this 
way they are made to look not much inferior to the best 
Derbyshire black marble. 

The labours of the quarriers in getting at this black mar¬ 
ble have shown us another locality in which the groovings 
and striations of the glacial period may be well examined. 

At the point where the more northerly of the two largest 
trap-dykes just noticed disappears under the drift and 
boulder series, a large portion of the latter has been removed, 
and on the surface of the Posidonian schist thus laid bare 
the glacial marks are very finely developed, with their bear¬ 
ings corresponding to those which we have observed at the 
limekilns near Scarlet Stack. 

The different layers (or lifts, as the quarriers call them) 
of the Posidonian schist bed vary both in their lithological 
texture and in organic contents. The finest and most 
compact layer, which is worked for ornamental purposes, is 


POOLYASH LIMESTONE. 


133 


characterized by an abundance of the Posidonia and the 
relics of tree-ferns, which we must necessarily regard with 
interest as indicating an approach, though still at a con¬ 
siderable distance, towards the coal formation of Great 
Britain. Another layer is little better than a soft shale 
charged largely with sulphuret of iron, and in this we have 
preserved (converted into that sulphuret) the remains 
chiefly of cephalopods, Goniatites and Orthocerata. There 
is a gentle rill in the eastern corner of this little creek 
which bursts out from under the drift-gravel near one of 
the trap-dykes, and the cattle coming down to drink there, 
trample about in this shale bed and break it up, and the 
tides then wash out the fossils and cast them ashore. In 
consequence of their metallic lustre and electrotypic ap¬ 
pearance, they have been much sought after by those who 
are acquainted with the locality, and have become rather 
scarce. It may be well to note, that all the beds of the 
Posidonian schist are more or less charged with iron 
pyrites. 

Continuing our sea-side ramble north-westward, we meet 
with a succession of creeks in which we find the hollows 
occupied by thin beds of the Posidonian schist, but the 
ridges are composed of a pale grey limestone almost entirely 
made up of fossils. These belong to the upper limestone 
series, which from the locality I have termed the Poolvash 
limestone. The colour seems owing almost entirely to the 
abundance of the organisms contained in the rock, and 
throughout the entire mass no trace of a shale bed appears. 

The manner in which this patch of the newest lime¬ 
stone in the very centre of the basin has been preserved 
and exhibited to our view, is somewhat singular. 

The original deposition of the beds of this Poolvash 
limestone seems to have been in a wide but not very deep 
bay, in which a line drawn from Spanish Head to Kirk 


134 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Santon Head would perhaps unite the extreme horns, 
though, in consequence of the denudation of the tilted 
edges both on the east and west side, we have no data by 
which to establish this satisfactorily. 

When the whole of this area was broken up by the con¬ 
vulsion which originated the trap-dykes undulations and 
bosses, the hill above Balladoole near Poolvash seems do 
have been elevated somewhat more than the neighbouring 
portion in a dome shape, and in the elevation it cracked 
along its south-western and north-western sides. Thus, 
when the denuding action subsequently took place, which 
we have always presumed to have come from the north¬ 
east and round towards the south, in consequence of their 
dip towards that quarter, the Poolvash beds on the Balla¬ 
doole side were preserved. 

We may perhaps illustrate the changes which have 
passed over this southern area since the Old Red Sand¬ 
stone or Devonian period in the following manner. 

Suppose a freshwater lough fed by a large river, but just 
accessible to the sea at about the ordinary half-tides. A 
hard frost sets on at the time of high water of the highest 
spring tide, and coats the lough with ice; on the ebb of 
the tide the water falls a few feet, and the ice sinks down 
upon the sides of the lough. In this condition a second 
coat of ice is formed at the ordinary level of the lough, and 
the first icy coating sticks up on all sides around it. When 
the tide flows again, the incoming waters force up the ice 
in the centre of the lough, and through the cracks thus 
formed the salt water gushes up, and forming a mixture 
with the fresh water of the river, overflows the broken beds 
of the first and second freezing; but as the tide this time 
does not rise so high as before, supposing another coat of 
ice now formed of this mixture of salt and fresh water, 
though it will overspread all the ice of the second freezing 


BALLADOOLE HILL. 


135 


and partially of the first, it will still leave a portion of the 
first freezing sticking up around its edges. A fourth sheet 
of freshwater ice is again formed on the recess of the tide, 
which is again contorted and broken up at the next high 
water, when another and fifth crust is frozen of mixed salt 
and fresh water, the proportions of each, as in the third 
freezing, varying according to the distance of any particular 
locality from the mouth of the lough. The tide ebbs and 
flows again, but this last time, in consequence of a violent 
storm producing a heavy ground-swell upon the sea, the 
force of the incoming tide is such as to produce great un¬ 
dulations and domes in the centre of the lough. A thaw 
commences in the interior of the country, and the aug¬ 
mented volume of the river consequent upon it sweeps 
along over the surface of the lough and erodes the beds, 
which being tilted up are more directly opposed to its 
violence, whilst those which present a smooth surface to 
the current are preserved. At the same time the hollows 
are filled up with gravel and detritus brought down from 
the uplands on the melting of the snow and the overflow 
of the river upon its banks. 

In the above illustration, the first freezing will represent 
the older lowest dark limestone of Ronalds way and Port 
St. Mary; the second is the Poolvash limestone; the third 
the lower trap-tuff; the fourth the Posidonian schist bed; 
the fifth is the upper trap-tuff; and the alluvial deposit 
after the denudation may represent the position of the 
boulder formation and drift-gravel series overlying the 
undulating and broken beds in the lower portion of this 
southern area of the Isle of Man. 

The crack which we have just noticed as occurring on the 
south-west side of the Balladoole hill is best seen at a point 
where the sea-road suddenly descends to the shore after 
passing a small cluster of cottages four hundred yards west- 


135 


THE ISLE OF MAN". 


ward of the road to Balladoole. The lift seems to have been 
sufficient to bring up the black beds of the lower limestone 
to view. 

At this point between high and low water there is a 
spring which seems to communicate with an underground 
pool, filled from the sea at high water, and which continues 
to run as a salt stream several hours after the ebb of the 
tide*. 

The whole of the coast hence to Strandhall is so cut up 
with dykes and metamorphosed, that it is impossible to 
make out any order in the beds, though it is generally 
evident that in proceeding north-westward, we are descend¬ 
ing again into the lower series f. 

The very great alteration which has taken place in the 
limestone here would seem to indicate that this was the 
grand focus of disturbance at the period of the trap-dykes, 
and this is further confirmed by the circumstance that the 
majority of the dykes which stretch over the area seem to 
converge towards this locality as a centre. 

I had the great gratification of submitting a portion of 
this altered limestone to that eminent continental geologist 
Baron Leopold Von Buch, and after a very little examina¬ 
tion, he pronounced it pure dolomite. A chemical analysis 
also of the same rock, by my valued friend George Kemp, 
Esq., M.D., determined its magnesian character. The 
establishing this species of metamorphism in connexion 
with trap-rock is highly interesting and important J. 

* This is the best locality for obtaining a series of the Poolv ash 
fossils. They are so abundant as really to make up the substance 
of the rock. Within an area of 100 yards, almost every species 
noted in the Scar limestone of Yorkshire may be found. 

t If the trap-tuff and Posidonian schist extended thus far (which 
is highly probable), they have been entirely denuded. 

+ Geologists seem to have been misled many years ago, when 
their science was in its infancy (a mere branch of mineralogy), by 


PLEISTOCENE CONCRETIONS. 


137 


When we reach Strandhall, the limestone has recovered 
its ordinary character, and the lower beds are exhibited 
between high and low water nearly horizontal, and charged 
abundantly with its characteristic fossils. 

There is an interesting phenomenon connected with the 
tertiary sands, which, as we have the opportunity, we may 
as well study at this point, though the same is developed 
on a much grander scale in the north of the island. 

As might be naturally anticipated, many of the springs 
of this neighbourhood, passing through and over the beds 
of limestone or washing the boulder clay, are highly charged 
with carbonate of lime. A spring of this character burst¬ 
ing forth from under the drift-gravel near some cottages 
on the sea-shore at the mouth of the Strandhall streamlet, 
has cemented the pleistocene sands of this locality in a very 
singular manner, forming hard, sonorous, stalactitic-looking 
masses. These are often tabular, and pierced with a series 
of long tubes varying in bore from that of a straw to two 
or even three inches diameter. At other times they are 
like long tapering icicles with a stone attached to the 
thicker end. It would seem that the water forcing its way 
through the pleistocene sands interposed between two layers 
of loam, and carrying with it particles of the carbonaceous 
clay thence derived, has a tendency to form concretionary 
masses on the lee side of any obstacle, (as for instance a 
pebble bedded in the sand,) and pipes or cavities where it 
has a freer course. The fragments of shells in the sand 
assist towards this concretionary structure, and perhaps it 
is owing to their great abundance that in the north of the 

specimens of rock taken from this neighbourhood. Some early 
geological maps which I have seen, lay down a broad hand of the 
magnesian limestone formation enveloping palaeozoic formations in 
the Isle of Man. There is dolomite indeed, but it is metamorphic 
limestone of the carboniferous sera. 


138 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


island, though the actual quantity of lime in the boulder 
clay is hardly more than six per cent., we have large masses 
formed in every gully after excessive rains by the percola¬ 
tion of the waters through the alternating beds of sand 
and loam. 

At Strandhall we have also a modern raised beach, 
cemented by the carbonated water, and a lovely bed of moss 
of some extent is being converted into travertine by the 
same cause. We can easily select specimens whose upper 
portion is all alive, green and flourishing, whilst the lower 
is fixed and rigid in its coating of stone, which preserves 
for ever the delicate outline of the growth of other days. 






STRAND HALL. 


139 


CHAPTER XI. 

Strandhall.—Submerged forest.—Has the land gone down or the 
sea come up?—The great fault.—Denudations.—Kentraugh.— 
The Giants’ Quoiting-stones.—The Runic Cross.—Port St. Mary. 
—Perwick Bay.—Coast scenery.—Spaloret and the Chasms.— 
The Samphire-gatherers.—Spanish Head.—Rumpy cats.—The 
Calf Islet and Cow Harbour.—The city of the Conies.—Bushel’s 
house.—Boss of gravel in the Calf of Man.—Icebergs again.— 
Diluvium.—The legend of Kitter and the sword Macbuin. 

We are once more on the high road, and two miles to the 
eastward along it would return us to Castletown, though 
our walk thence along the shore has been double that in 
distance, and, not including stoppages, the treble of it in 
point of time. But we are bound for Port Erin and Elesh- 
wick Bay, Port St. Mary, the Chasms, and the Calf Islet. 
Our ungeological friends have promised to pick us up at 
this point as they pass by in their carriage, but we are 
decided on first of all making them alight awhile, and ex¬ 
amine with us the ruins of a submerged forest. 

At the mouth of the Strandhall brook, between high 
and low water, may be observed a bed of turf about one 
foot thick, and the trunks of trees (chiefly ash and fir) 
standing upright, and their roots running down into an 
alluvial blue sandy marl; these roots may be traced several 
feet, and it is perfectly plain that here on this very spot 
the trees lived and grew. The same thing (viz. the exist¬ 
ence at one time of forest trees at a level now below high 
water) is also established for other localities around this 
great bay. Twenty-one years ago, according to the testi¬ 
mony which I have received from living witnesses, after a 


140 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


violent storm of three days, the sands opposite Mount 
Gawne were swept away and discovered a vast number of 
trunks of trees, some standing upright, others laid prostrate 
towards the north, as if overthrown by some violent incur¬ 
sion of the sea*. Nay, it has been further stated to me 
by those whom I am bound to believe, that the foundations 
of a primitive hut were laid bare, and that therein were 
some antique uncouth-looking instruments, once the pro¬ 
perty, it may be, of the primitive woodcutters f. Now we 
need not be told that the oak, ash and fir are not marine 
plants, and that turf and algae do not ordinarily occupy 
together the same soil; and yet the algae wave and float 
around and upon these venerable stumps, as if they were 
veritably the mere metamorphosed mosses and lichens 
which in more ancient days fastened and luxuriated upon 
them. To what do these things tend ? The land has 
either gone down, or the sea come up. The latter suppo¬ 
sition no geologist will subscribe to, as it has now become 
an axiom that nothing is so stable as the sea, and nothing 
so unstable as the land. The land has gone down then, 
and carried the turf and the trees along with it. But I 
further believe that it has partly come up again. My rea¬ 
sons are the following. 

I have already alluded in several instances to a raised 
sea-beach, of apparently a modern date, occurring very 
distinctly along the coasts of the southern part of the 
island, at a level of about eight feet above the present high 

* One gentleman (the father of my informant), hoping to turn 
the strange occurrence to some account, carted away several loads of 
the rotten turf which was laid bare and spread it upon his lands. The 
effect was just the opposite to his intention: the fields were barren 
for two or three years. 

t The marks of a hatchet are discernible on one of the stumps 
which I have removed. 


SUBMERGED FOREST. 


141 


water. In many instances the coast-road runs upon this 
beach, and the former beach (generally a bank of the 
boulder clay or drift-gravel) rises up on the landward side 
at distances varying, according to the fall of the ground, 
from twenty to fifty yards from the present high water 
mark. The road in fact runs between two coast lines, the 
present and a more ancient one. Perhaps-the two most 
clear examples are, the road from Hango Hill to Castle¬ 
town, and the road at the foot of Mount Gawne, between 
the mouth of the Colby river at Kentraugh and the stream¬ 
let which comes down from the meadows of Kirk Christ's 
Rushen. I have just alluded to the cementing of the ma¬ 
terials of this newest beach by the calcareous spring hard 
by here at Strandhall. My own feeling then is, that this 
last-raised beach has been formed since the growth and 
perishing of the half-merged forest. First appearances 
perhaps go the other way, and it seems easier to suppose, 
that when the land was elevated so as to form this beach, 
the elevation was to such an extent as to leave dry a large 
portion, if not the whole, of Poolvash Bay, and that on the 
land thus gained from the sea the forest grew, and that 
there has been since that time a gradual sinking of the 
land, by which the sea has regained its territory nearly up 
to the ancient beach of the drift-gravel, and that thus the 
trees have been submerged. 

But let us examine the matter a little more closely. We 
may first then observe, that the localities where the trees 
are found are at the mouths of low valleys opening out 
widely into the sea; and, as I have previously stated, they 
seem to have been formed by the denuding action of the 
sea during the elevation of the great drift-gravel platform, 
and are contemporary with the scooping-out of the great 
basin of the Curragh in the north of the island. Now that 
elevation being to such an extent as to connect the island 


142 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


with the surrounding countries, these excavated valleys 
would be far more extensive than now, and their termini 
would be removed many miles from the points where they 
now meet the salt water. These were the valleys and 
plains in which the great Elk (Megaceros Hibernicus) de¬ 
lighted, and in them, in the south of the island as well as 
in St. John's Yale and the Curragh of the north, his re¬ 
mains are found. And as in the present day these low 
alluvial and sheltered valleys are almost the only localities 
where timber seems readily to grow, so would it be then. 

But a period of submergence came: the sea again over¬ 
spread the valleys and converted them into estuaries, 
whilst the great drift-gravel platform was being quietly 
still further eaten away, and then the turf-beds and the 
forest-trees became the habitat of marine monsters: 

“ Piscium et summa genus hsesit ulmo*.” 

The inner coast line was then formed. But a gradual 
emergence again set on, and may still imperceptibly be 
going forward, which has brought up to our inspection out 
of the great brine-vat the preserved samples of a primitive 
vegetation, which have been in pickle for (it may be) thou¬ 
sands of generations. 

In our onward journey by the high road we must again 
ask our friends to halt and alight for ten minutes, whilst 
we examine the fault which cuts off suddenly the lime¬ 
stone in the western area of this southern basin. It is 
rather better than half a mile westward of the Strandhall 
streamlet, and not more than 300 yards beyond the lime¬ 
kiln by the road-side, and about the same distance from 
the eastern lodge of Kentraugh. Here it is! clear enough 
on the sea-shore, where a short road, convenient for cart¬ 
ing the wrecked sea-weed, leads down from the highway. 

* Horace, Od. i. 2. 


THE GREAT FAULT. 


143 


We are looking nearly westward* in a line whicli passes 
through the limekilns at Port St. Mary, and grazes the 
bluff coast extending thence by Spanish Head and the 
southern side of the Calf of Man down to the Burrough 
and the Eye rock. On our left hand is the lower dark 
limestone, nearly horizontal; on our right the schist, dip- 
ping generally at a very low angle towards the south, 
but with gentle undulations as we proceed in a westerly 
direction. We stand on broken ground covered with 
boulders and shingle, but with some slight indications 
that along the line of fault the same mass of greenstone 
runs which is discernible at Port St. Mary. Where is 
the Old Red conglomerate ? I have little doubt that it 
underlies the limestone here up to the very edge of the 
fault, and of a respectable thickness too, for such is the 
case a few miles inland up the country, as seen by the 
cross-fault at Athol-bridge on the Peel-road from Castle¬ 
town f. But it is plain enough that after the elevation of 
the entire country on the northern J side of a line drawn 
from Athol-bridge through this spot to Port St. Mary, a 
great denuding force has clean shaved off the upper and 
lower limestone, the old red conglomerate and some por¬ 
tion of the schist beds; and so here, as well as at the fault 
at Coshnahawin (which was noticed before), the limestone 
and the schist are in such juxtaposition that the fact of the 
intervening old red conglomerate is not at all exhibited. 

Let us take a note of the period within which this fault 
occurred, for it may be of use hereafter. The boulder clay 
lies directly and unbroken across the great fracture; it was 
therefore anterior to that deposit; and though the newer 
limestone beds do not reach up to this line of disturbance 
now, it is very clear that this is only in consequence of the 

* Magnetic S. 80° W. t See Plate II. 

X Magnetic meridian. 


144 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


denudation, which has swept away rocks on both sides of it; 
the fault was therefore posterior to the Carboniferous sera. 
We have thus, even geologically speaking, a vast interval 
wherein the different elements of elevation and destruction 
had their play. 

The drive along the coast by Kentraugh from this point 
is particularly fine, and the country around in a high state 
of cultivation. There are unmistakeable evidences too of a 
desire on the part of thegreat landed proprietor of this neigh¬ 
bourhood to develope the agricultural resources of the coun¬ 
try, and to advance the character and condition of the farm 
labourers. If a similar desire were more general, the com¬ 
plaint which has been sometimes made by English judges at 
agricultural meetings on the island, that it would be de¬ 
sirable to grow more wheat and fewer weeds, would soon 
be groundless. 

Just beyond the Colby river where it meets the sea near 
Kentraugh, there are three roads which rise from the shore 
inland upon the terrace of the drift-gravel. The first leads 
up to Ballagawne and Fleshwick Bay, the second to Port 
Erin, and the third to Port St. Mary; this last may per¬ 
haps be considered rather as a continuation of the main 
road, and we may as well adopt it,, as most fitting to our 
present object. 

A gigantic slab of clay-schist stands erect in a field on 
our right,—the monument, it may be, of “ Danish chief in 
battle slain ” It once had its fellow, and tradition assigns 
their location to the energies of two giants, who in a trial of 
their respective skill in quoit-playing tossed them hither 
from the summit of the Mull Hills *. 

A few years ago there was another stone of some interest, 
as being the only Runic monument in this neighbourhood 
and the largest on the island, which stood at the meeting 
* Hence the name, “ the Giants’ Quoiting-stones.” 


PORT ST. MARY. 


145 


of the road to Port Erin with the road running from Port 
St. Mary to Rushen parish church. It must now be in¬ 
quired after, and will be found after some search propping 
the wall of a tottering outhouse in the farm-yard close by. 

Port St. Mary, or as it was anciently called in Manx, 
Purt-noo-Moirey, and thence corrupted intoPort-le-Murray, 
is a thriving fishing hamlet carrying on a fair export trade 
of limestone, lime, and agricultural produce at all times, 
and in the herring season sheltering a large portion of the 
fleet whilst pursuing their fishing on the southern coasts. 
The harbour was formerly not considered safe, but recent 
survey has shown that with a not excessive outlay very supe¬ 
rior accommodation might be obtained for even large vessels 
in almost every wind*. The Calf of Man may be visited by 
boat either from Port Erin or Port St. Mary, or we may 
proceed on foot or horseback over the Mull Hills by the 
sequestered hamlet of Craig Neesh to the Sound of the 
Calf or Kitterland Strait and take boat there, should there 
chance to be one on the spot. The direction of the wind 
and the state of the weather will best determine the route, 
or whether the Calf Islet should be attempted at all. The 
coast scenery is so fine in this neighbourhood that the 
journey by water should be adopted if practicable by those 
who have heart for it, and can enjoy azure depths, dark 
frowning precipices, rocky pinnacles, water-worn caves, and 
the wild screaming of thousands of sea-fowl echoed re¬ 
sponsively from one bluff headland to another. 

For the purpose of visiting the far-famed chasm of 
Spanish Head, let us take a boat from Port St. Mary. A 

* The Mariner’s Guide notes the Carrick as a dangerous rock in 
the centre of Poolvash Bay. The material of which it is composed 
would pay for its removal. It is a fine boss of the lower limestone. 
Conchologists will find it a favourite habitat of Saxicava rugosa. 
With a hammer we may detach masses of rock thick with pear-shaped 
cavities and containing the living mollusk. 

H 


146 


THE ISLE OE MAN. 


guide will conduct the more timid thither on foot by a 
somewhat tedious road which winds about on the eastern 
side of the mountain. We may, whilst the boat is being 
prepared, examine the limestone in the neighbourhood of 
the kilns and procure a series of the fossils of the lower beds. 
They are here rich in the larger corals, and good samples 
of Favosites ccetetes and Turbinolia may be picked up. The 
grooving and polishing of the limestone also just under 
the boulder clay near the limekilns may be well-studied, and 
turning round the point into Perwick Bay, a good section 
is exhibited of the boulder clay with the drift-gravel resting 
on it, and overlying the junction of the limestone with the 
schist caused by the fault which has just been noticed as 
continued hither from Athol Bridge through Strandhall. 
Perwick Bay itself has some very pretty scenery, and will 
be found well-worthy of a visit. 

And now we ’re afloat and gliding down coastwise to the 
south-west on the ebb tide. A good mile brings us to 
Fistard Head, where, as Mr. Chaloner has noted in his book 
or rather map, is the rock called “Chering Cross where 
the rare grotto is.” A huge bifurcated stack rises up 
amidst the breakers like twin gigantic sugar-loaves to a 
height of 150 feet*. From the almost perfect horizontally 
of the beds of grey-coloured schist of which it is composed, 
it might readily be taken, even within a short distance, for 
a pile of limestonef. Flocks of gulls and curlews are per¬ 
petually disputing its prominent points, and many a good 
shot may the marksman here get at “ Mother Carey’s 
chickens J.” The “rare grotto” will amply repay the 

* See view of Spanish Head from the chasms. 

t The light blue schist of Spanish Head breaks up into long 
slabs, which are used very largely on the island as lintels for doors 
and windows. It is slightly elastic and very tough in texture. 

+ Thalassidroma pelagica, or Stormy Petrel. 


SPANISH HEAD. 


147 


peril of the visit. At full tide it may be sailed through, 
and on a calm day no voyage can be more delicious. Below 
is the deep blue pool swarming with fish of every character; 
crabs,lobsters, sea-urchins, star-fish and medusae (jelly-fish) 
with long floating and stinging arms present an ever- 
moving picture : above, the heavy-browed arches whose rude 
groinings have been carved out of the solid rock by that 
never-ceasing tool with which Old Ocean fashions his won¬ 
drous palaces, where the flickering light dances to and fro 
as the splash of the oar stirs the ripple doubled and tripled 
and interlacing with its fellows returned from each jutting 
point of this winding cavity. 

Emerging again to the clear and steady light of day, we 
find ourselves at the foot of a stupendous precipice, frown¬ 
ing down upon us full 300 feet, rent into awful chasms, 
and presenting detached masses which imagination at once 
converts into the gathering strength of rocky avalanches, 
just about to rush down and overwhelm us in their stu¬ 
pendous ruin. And such events are not the mere pictures 
of the imagination, but a reality. Even within the last 
winter a pile of several tons weight precipitated itself from 
the summit of Spanish H§ad into the raging waves below, 
mingling its awful crash with the deep roar of the wintry 
billow. And the geologist will easily see that the nearly 
half-moon bay lying between Fistard Head and Spanish 
Head has heen formed by a series of such catastrophes. 

The dip of the beds is nearly magnetic south, at an 
angle, however, not exceeding 15°. An examination of 
the neighbourhood seems to indicate that they form part 
of a large dome, of which the Mull Hills are the summit. 
In the elevation of that dome cracks were most likely 
formed perpendicular to the surface and at right angles to 
each other, converging therefore towards the central nu¬ 
cleus. Whether the great fault which we have noticed 

h 2 


148 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


already two or three times as extending in this direction 
happened at the same time with that elevation, or was 
subsequent to it, is not a point of great importance in the 
question, or readily determined. The result in either case 
would be the same, viz. that of a steep precipice towards 
the south or nearly south, of which the upper part would 
be always impending, and the lower part would present to 
the beat of the waves great facilities for destruction, in 
consequence of the cracks and chasms running inland at 
right angles to the coast line. There is in fact a constant 
tendency to land-slips, and the erosive action of the sea 
upon the cliff is ever accelerating such events. Any con¬ 
vulsion of nature, and more especially a violent earth¬ 
quake, would also produce similar catastrophes. There 
are dark allusions in some of the ancient chronicles to re¬ 
markable earthquakes felt on the island, and it is not alto¬ 
gether improbable that the fissures which now attract par¬ 
ticular attention may have been thus enlarged from mere 
cracks to their present size within the historic period. Dr. 
M f Culloch has noticed the position of the ruins of a her¬ 
mit's residence in reference to this point; and the situation 
of a cromlech on the very edge of the precipice, and in¬ 
tersected with fissures, indicates that the locality has ex¬ 
perienced some disturbance at a date not very far back. 

To get a good view of the phenomenon we must ascend 
to the summit of the precipice. By proceeding towards 
the western recess of the bay, where the shore slightly re¬ 
cedes, we may, after some toil, accomplish this. I have 
ascended by the cracks and crannies in the perpendicular 
face, but I should not be disposed to venture a second 
time. Having once upon a time proceeded half-way, the 
incoming tide and the oncoming night forbad a return, 
and forced me to adopt the system of climbing-boys, with 
elbows and knees against the opposite walls of one of the 


SAMPHIRE-GATHERERS. 


149 


narrower fissures. Right thankfully I placed my hands 
upon the topmost ledge of rock, and drew myself on to its 
secure platform. A story is current in the neighbourhood, 
which may well make us shudder in looking down from 
this fearful precipice upon the broken crags below us. 

Two samphire-gatherers, husband and wife, had discover¬ 
ed a fine bed of that herb* on a rocky ledge several fathoms 
below the great platform. In no place with which I am 
acquainted does it luxuriate more richly than in the clefts 
and crannies about Spanish Head. They determined to 
be possessed of this prized discovery; and for this pur¬ 
pose procured a rope, which the wife permitted to be 
passed under her arms, and in this manner, with an ample 
bag suspended from her neck, she was let down by the 
husband to the identical spot. When she had gathered as 
much as she could, she signaled to be drawn up. 

It would appear that, in consequence of the additional 
weight, some of the strands of the rope were sprung, or, 
more probably, they had been chafed and severed against 
the keen edges of the rock. When within a few r feet of the 
top the rope altogether gave way.. Can we picture the agony 
of the husband in that moment, when he beheld his wife 
dashing headlong from pinnacle to pinnacle, till at length 
her mangled corpse was received in the rolling surge ? 

On examining the rocky platform we shall observe, about 
eighty yards inland from the brink of the precipice, a line 
of subsidence running magnetic east and west, and be¬ 
tween this line and the cliff a series of parallel deep cracks 
or crevasses, some of them a good yard wide. At right 
angles to these crevasses, that is, in directions running 
magnetic north and south, we find the rock rent into 
several grand chasms penetrating to an unknown depth, 
though evidently narrowing as they proceed downward. 

* Erithmum maritimum. 


150 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


The area of the most seriously disturbed mass, which 
seems ready to detach itself from the mountain-side and 
rush headlong on the slightest provocation into the sea, is 
by actual measurement about 12,000 square yards. 

After betaking ourselves again to the boat, a little 
steady pulling will bring us in front of Spanish Head it¬ 
self, the most southerly point of the island. ,r Y were hard 
to say whether the upward or the downward look is the 
most sickening. We are floating betwixt as it seems twin 
abysses, the ocean and the sky, the blue above and the 
blue below. A stupendous wall of grey schist rears itself 
on high, directly out of the sea, to an elevation of 300 
feet; its reflection in the azure mirror before us doubles 
that height, and in truth the plumb-line will sink many 
fathoms even close in shore ere it strikes the bottom. 
Tradition is very strong which connects the name of the 
headland with the wreck of a portion of the Spanish Ar¬ 
mada upon this iron-bound coast. Full many a noble 
vessel might founder here and leave no trace behind. I 
have however heard it hinted, that the island owes its sin¬ 
gular breed of tailless cats * to that event, and that the 
ancient cradle of this apparently mutilated species of the 
feline family must be looked for in one of the provinces of 
the south-western peninsula of Europe. 

In turning the point of Spanish Head we find ourselves 
suddenly in the rake of the tide, which sets, when near 
the full, with great rapidity through the narrow channel 
separating the Calf Islet from the main island. In bois- 

* The Rumpy Cat (as it is here called) appears to be a monstro¬ 
sity of the common domestic cat. In its wild state (which is not 
unfrequent) it is somewhat larger than an ordinary-sized cat; the 
hind legs also are proportionally larger than the fore. In mixed 
breeds, of which I have had frequent sight, of the same birth, some 
have been without tails, others with full-length tails, and others 
again with mere rudiments of tails, consisting of only a few joints. 

















4 
































— 




























, 
































THE CALF ISLET. 


151 


terous weather the passage from the one to the other is 
not without great risk, and though the width of the chan¬ 
nel is not more than 500 yards, there have been occasions 
when for many days no communication could be made 
across. There are several sunken rocks, and the strait is 
often full of breakers. In mid-channel, though rather to 
the northern side of it, is a small islet called Kitterland, of 
about an acre and a half, on which the tide breaks in full 
fury and becomes divided into two powerful river-torrents, 
running from eight to ten miles per hour when the wind 
blows strong at high water from south-east or north-west. 

The landing at the Calf Islet is usually made at a small 
creek on the northern shore, whence parties proceed by a 
winding road which rises over the hill on the western side 
to visit the ruins of Bushel's House and the adjacent light¬ 
houses. It will be as easy for us to run down on the south¬ 
eastern side of the islet, passing the fine headland Gough- 
yarn and a series of wild creeks, till we reach the Cow 
Harbour, an extremely convenient place of access near the 
Burrough at the south of the Calf of Man. Here then we 
may ship our oars, and draw up the frail craft “ in littore 
sicco.” 

At the southern extremity of the Calf Islet is a fine patch 
of the drift-gravel platform. It is here about twenty-five 
feet above high water, resting upon the tilted edge of the 
clay schist, which dips at a high angle S. 30° W. magne¬ 
tic*. That feeble folk the conies have becaverned it in 
every direction, and as their mining operations have been 
earned on now, according to most ancient records t, for 
many centuries, their subterranean city spreads out with 

* I discovered here a small vein of sulphuret of copper in 1846. 
It runs S. 60° E. magnetic, and dips S.W. by S. at an angle of 70°. 

t Chaloner, writing in 1653 of the Calf Islet, says, “Here are 
some Ayries of mettled Faulcons, that build in the Rocks; great 


152 


THE ISLE OP MAN. 


its labyrinth of streets to an unknown extent. The tenant 
of this island farm, in remuneration for the damage which 
they occasion to his growing crops, demands from them 
about 2000 heads annually, the amount of which he remits 
to the “ Lord of the Isle,” in part payment of the rent. 

Hard by, standing out somewhat prominently into the 
southern sea, are two remarkable rocks, the Burrough and 
the Eye, of which the last is perfectly insulated, and both 
rise to a height of more than a hundred feet above high 
water, and are pierced by natural archways wrought out by 
the action of the sea when at a higher relative level upon 
the strike of the schist of which they are composed. The 
Eye is accessible only with much risk and toil, and on its 
summit is a singular excavation called the Grave of Bushel*, 
in reality a place of refuge, concealment and defence, per¬ 
haps at the time when, as Camden tells us, the islet was 
held by “ a pretty good garrison.” We ascend by an easy 
road, for which we are indebted to the Edinbro* Board, as 
the guardians of the northern lighthouses, who opened it 

store of Conies, and Red-Deer; and in the summer time, there arrive 
out of Ireland and the Western parts of Scotland many of those small 
Hawks called Merlyns. There is also a sort of Sea-Fowl, called Puf- 
fines, of a very unctuous Constitution, which breed in the Coney 
holes. The flesh of these birds is nothing pleasant, fresh, because 
of their rank and Fish-like taste, but pickled or salted they may be 
ranked with Anchovies, Caviare, or the like. But profitable they are 
in their feathers and Oyl.”—Description of the Isle of Man, p. 2. 

* Mr. Wood described it in 1811 in the following terms :—“ It is 
in the form of a cross, each of the two longitudinal cavities being 
about six feet long, three wide and two deep. Immediately at the 
edge of the cavities is a wall of stone and mortal’, two feet high, ex¬ 
cept at the southern, western and eastern ends, which were left open, 
perhaps for ingress, egress, observation, and the admission of light. 
The whole is covered with slate and mortar. Salt water is found at 
the bottom, the consequence of the sea breaking over the rock in 
stormy weather.’ 1 


J 


bushel’s house. 


153 


and keep it in good repair, to facilitate the transport of 
stores to the two important lighthouses, which are so 
placed on elevated ground in the western part of the Calf 
Islet as that their two lights being brought into one, shall 
bear upon a dangerous reef, the Hen and Chickens, run¬ 
ning out a few hundred yards into the sea, of which the 
extreme point is dry at low water. How deeply interest¬ 
ing is it to ascend the spiral stairs of one of the towers, 
and to follow out the details of these beacons set upon a 
hill, upon the accuracy of which depends the safety of so 
many richly freighted vessels and the preservation of thou¬ 
sands of our hardy tars in the dark nights when “the 
stormy winds do blow ! ” And that solitary watcher, how 
deep the responsibility which devolves upon him to keep 
from sunset to sunrise the lights burning, the wicks well- 
trimmed, the mirrors bright and burnished, and the ma¬ 
chinery clean and regular, and wound up at stated seasons ! 

To the northward of the lighthouses, on the highest 
point of the Calf Islet, full 470 feet above the sea, is a pile 
of stones, erected for the Trigonometrical Survey. A 
would-be hermit of the name of Bushel erected about two 
centuries ago a lonely hut within a few feet of this point, 
where the precipice descends with fearful rapidity into the 
sea*. The following record which he has left of himself, 
whilst it contradicts the story of his death and burial on 
the islet, is a painful testimony to the reality of his seclu¬ 
sion and the motives to it t:— 

“ The embrions of my mines proving abortive by the 
sudden fall and death of my late friend the Chancellor 

* Quoted in a MS. history now in the possession of the Clerk of 
the Rolls, written about 1655, the author of which says he found 
it set down in Mr. Thomas Bushel’s Mineral Overture to the Par¬ 
liament. 

t Looking down the precipice, within a few yards of the ruined 
hut into the sea, the eye rests on the two triangular or pyramidal 

II 5 


154 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Bacon, in King James's reign, were the motives which 
persuaded my pensive retirement to a three years' unso¬ 
ciable solitude in the desolate island called the Calf of 
Man, where, in obedience to my dead Lord's philosophical 
advice, I resolved to make a perfect experiment upon my¬ 
self, for the obtaining a long and healthy life (most neces¬ 
sary for such a repentance as my former debauchedness 
required), as by a parsimonious diet of herbs, oil, mustard 
and honey, with water sufficient, most like to that of our 
long-lived forefathers before the flood (as was conceived 
by that Lord), which I most strictly observed, as if obliged 
by a religious vow, till Divine Providence called me to 
more active life 

The attention of the geologist will, however, on this spot 
be arrested by a still more singular and far more ancient 
record of events which this islet has witnessed. 

Scattered here and there round about the ruins of this 
hut are rounded lumps of granite and other hard rock 
(strangers to this islet) about the size of a medium cannon¬ 
ball. They were certainly not brought hither for Mr. 
Bushel's special amusement, nor is it very likely that he 
followed so closely in the steps of his master as to specu¬ 
late on the fact of their occurrence in this singular locality; 
and yet their occurrence is well-worth the study of even 
the most profound philosopher. Whence did they come 
hither ? How did they come ? These are questions which 
involve in their answer some of the most interesting theo¬ 
ries of geologists. 

rocks of the Stack, fifteen yards from the bottom of the cliff*, with 
the sea intervening, and rising from a base of about fifty feet to a 
height of rather more than one hundred. They form a very pic¬ 
turesque object as approached from the north-west. 

* Mr. Wood relates a tradition of a person who in the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth had murdered a most beautiful lady in a fit of 
jealousy, and took refuge in the desolateness and seclusion of this 
islet.—Wood’s Account, p. 144. 


GRAVEL BOSS. 


155 


Let us see what further facts of a similar character may 
be picked up on the islet. Strung together they may form 
a band capacious enough to encircle the truth, and bring 
it before us bound down within the limits of a reasonable 
probability. 

We pass to the eastward over hill and dale, rugged and 
barren, and at every ten or dozen yards of our progress 
these rounded and scratched foreigners catch the eye. 
Sometimes they increase largely in their dimensions, and 
become, though not gigantic, yet full-sized boulders. 
Near the eastern Pile of Stones which has been erected on 
an eminence of 400 feet above the level of the sea is a very 
remarkable deposit of boulders, gravel and sand. It is 
about a hundred yards north of the pile, and at twenty- 
eight feet lower elevation, but still resting on and covering, 
in the shape of an oblong spheroidal boss, a somewhat 
raised portion of the clay schist which forms the substratum 
of the islet. 

A good section has been made into the very heart of 
this mass (which is about thirteen feet deep and fifty feet 
across in the longer, i. e. the north and south axis) for the 
purpose of procuring gravel for the neighbouring road, 
and exhibits a somewhat irregular yet distinct stratification, 
which consists in the lowest part of a deposit of fine sand; 
above that, patches of gravel in sand ; then still higher up, 
of gravel and scratched fragments of rock and good-sized 
boulders. And the rocks are not any of them such as we 
could swear to as belonging to this immediate locality. 
There are red and grey syenites, porphyries, granites, grits 
and sandstone, either from Cumberland or the south of 
Scotland, but not a fragment, as far as I have hitherto seen, 
of Poolvash or Ronaldsway limestone, though there can be 
little doubt that the materials of the hillock have been trans¬ 
ported hither across the limestone area of the Isle of Man. 


156 , 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Did some great wave, caused by the sudden upheaval of 
a mighty mountain-chain from the bosom of the ocean, 
sweep across the area of the Irish Channel, and. bearing 
onwards in its resistless course a rocky storm of the torn- 
up debris of the strata over which it had passed, break 
upon the eminence of this islet, which stood up an unlucky 
reef in its mid-progress ? On such an hypothesis it seems 
hard to account for the regularity of the deposit and the ap¬ 
parently quiet manner in which the different materials have 
assumed their present position, together with the absence 
of the limestone rocks of the immediate neighbourhood. 

On the other hand, can we look upon this stratified boss 
of boulders, gravel and sand, simply as a relic of the an¬ 
cient sea-bottom, a kind of upper terrace of drift-gravel, 
and aggregated under circumstances similar to those under 
which was spread out the platform of which a fragment 
has just been noted near the Burro ugh, and of which an¬ 
other fragment may be noted down there by the sea-shore 
of the north of this islet ? Then it seems very strange 
that such a mass should have remained on the subse¬ 
quent elevation of the island, just upon this one prominent 
spot, and not in the hollows which surround it on almost 
all sides. There is for instance, about eighty yards to the 
eastward, a deep depression, in which is a turf-bog, whence 
a little stream takes its rise. We may stand in that hol¬ 
low, and singular as it may appear, though we are closely 
surrounded by sea on all sides, and the extent of the islet 
of the Calf is only 800 superficial acres, not a glimpse of 
the salt water can we catch, look which way we will, and 
yet in this hollow we can detect no such bed of gravel and 
sand, no tokens whatever of an ancient sea-bottom. 

The only hypothesis which to my mind seems capable 
of being applied with any show of plausibility to the solu¬ 
tion of the problem, is that which I have suggested in my 


DILUVIAL ACTION. 


157 


memoir of the “ Geology of the Calf of Man,” published in 
the Proceedings of the Geological Society of London in 
1847*. It is that of a grounded iceberg, or stranded 
mass of packed ice, melting and depositing quietly its load, 
gathered on far'distant shores, whilst subjected to the 
gentle action of a drifting current coming from theE.N.E., 
or nearly magnetic east. And the inference which I have 
further drawn from the phenomenon is, that the sea-level 
of that period was relatively with the Isle of Man 400 feet 
at least higher than now, i.e. that there has been an eleva¬ 
tion of the whole sea-bottom of this neighbourhood since 
the time of this deposit, amounting to at least 400 feet in 
perpendicular height. 

I would not urge this hypothesis to the exclusion of that 
of a diluvial action as having at some former period passed 
over the island; indeed there are other phenomena else¬ 
where which to me seem capable of being explained only 
on this latter supposition; perhaps the scattered boulders 
which we trace even to the highest point on the islet at 
BushePs House are also attributable to such action; but 
what I would simply urge is, that the sweeping of great 
waves of translation seems inconsistent with the accumu¬ 
lation of so quietly stratified a deposit as this gravel boss, 
on so exposed a point, and that therefore the diluvial action 
must have taken place prior to this accumulation, which 
we must rather attribute to the deliquescence of loaded ice 
in a not very much troubled seaf. The question of the 

* See Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, May 1st, 1847, 
p. 1 79. 

t It might perhaps be argued, that the elevation of the Calf Islet 
and the great mountain-chain of the island, of which it is evidently 
a continuation, took place after the accumulation of the drift-gravel; 
but it was in anticipation of such an argument that I have directed 
attention to the circumstance of this drift deposit lying undisturbed 


158 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


diluvium itself will come before our notice when we ascend 
South Barrule and Irey-na-Lhaa, and track the granite 
boulders from their summits to the origin of them. 

The panorama from the summit of the gravel boss on 
the Calf Islet is of the finest possible character. Looking 
northward, the whole of the southern portion of the Isle of 
Man appears spread out as a map for our study. To the 
eastward lie the deep indentures of Poolvash Bay and Castle¬ 
town Bay; the rich corn-lands rising from the water’s edge 
and spreading far up into the interior of the country, and 
the different objects which we have noted in our peregrina¬ 
tions now become familiar to us, dotted here and there 
over the fair landscape. To the westward again the scenery 
presents a contrast the most complete. Stupendous rocks 
pile upon pile stretch far away northwards, black, frowning 
and precipitous. Immediately in front rise the Mull Hills, 
and beyond, uplifted as it were each one on the shoulders of 
the nearer to us, the eye rests successively on Brada Head, 
Ennyn Mooar, Slieau-y-Carnaane, Irey-na-Lhaa, and the 
majestic South Barrule. The first four of these descend at 
once without a rest or break right down from a height of 
between 600 and 1200 feet into the western sea, and yet 
they cradle at their base the lovely quiet bays of Port Erin 
and Flesh wick. And look! there we catch a far-off glimpse 
of the Niarbyl and the opening out of Glen Rushen where 
the turbid waters from the Beckwith Mine come pouring 
over the pretty waterfall of Glenmeay*., Beyond is Con- 

across the great line of fault passing hence through Port St. Mary 
and Strandliall to Athol Bridge. When the Isle of Man was ele¬ 
vated out of the Pleistocene sea, the whole area of the Irish sea- 
bottom seems to have been raised with it. 

* The Waterfall of Glenmeay (the rich valley, Mea or Meay being 
Manx for luxuriant or fertile) is a favourite resort of tourists easily 
accessible from Peel; or it may be taken in the way from Castletown 
to Peel by those who adopt the higher mountain road thither over 


THE IRISH SEA. 


159 


trary Head, where the great tides coming into the Irish 
Channel from the north and south twice each day struggle 
for the mastery and twice each day retire with doubtful vic¬ 
tory. The whole scene closes in that direction with the 
hills above Peel and Corrin's Folly mounted upon the sad¬ 
dle of the round-backed Horse* *. 

On a clear day from the same point we may pick out the 
more prominent points of the north-eastern coast of the 
Emerald Isle, the Arklow and the Mourne Mountains, and 
the high land about Carlingford Bay and Lough Strangford. 
Anglesey and the Cambrian and Cumbrian Mountains 
present a dim blue outline in the southern and eastern 
horizon; and dotted over the bosom of the great deep are 
countless sails, the fair wings of commerce speeding their 
flight to the farthest-off regions of earth. Whilst enjoying 
such scenes from this spot on a clear sunny day, when all 
appears pleasure, peace, and security,—the little cloud no 
bigger than a man’s hand rising up in the far south-western 
horizon, distinct harbinger of the storm and darkness soon 
about to cover the ocean and the air, will remind us of the 
truthfulness of the metaphor which Gray's bard scratched 
out when he sang,— 

t( Fair laughs the morn and soft the zephyr blows, 

While proudly riding o’er the azure realm. 

In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes. 

Youth on the prow and Pleasure at the helm. 

Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind’s sway 

That, hush’d in grim repose, expects his evening prey.” 


South Barrule. The geologist will be interested in the patches of 
drift-gravel by the side of the road between Dalby and Glenmeay, 
and the pleistocene series may also well be studied at the mouth of 
the glen half a mile below the waterfall. 

* The Horse is the name given to the rounded hill rising south¬ 
ward of Peel Castle. 




160 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


A far different scene was once witnessed from this spot 
(so says the legendary history of this isle) by a grim Nor¬ 
wegian hunter, which, as it has to do with the name of the 
little islet lying down there in the Race or Sound of the 
Calf, we may as well relate as the conclusion of this chapter, 
pretty nearly as Waldron has given it in his strange record*: 

“ In the days of Olave Godredson there resided in Man 
a great Norman baron named Kitter, who w r as so fond of 
the chase that he extirpated all the bisons and elks with 
which the island abounded at the time of his arrival, to the 
utter dismay of the people, who dreading that he might 
likewise deprive them of their cattle and even of their purrsf 
in the mountains, had recourse to witchcraft to prevent 
such a disaster. When this Nimrod of the north had de¬ 
stroyed all the wild animals of the chase in Man, he one day 
extended his havoc to-the red deer of the Calf, leaving at 
his castle on the brow of Barrule only the cook, whose name 
was Eaoch, (which signifies a person who can cry loud,) to 
dress the provisions intended for his dinner. Eaoch hap¬ 
pened to fall asleep at his work in the kitchen; the famous 
witch-wife Ada caused the fat accumulated at the lee-side 
of the boiling pot to bubble over into the fire, which set the 
house in a blaze. The astonished cook immediately exerted 
his characteristic powers to such an extent that he alarmed 
the hunters in the Calf, a distance of nearly ten miles. Kit¬ 
ter hearing the cries of his cook and seeing his castle in 
flames made to the beach with all possible speed, and em¬ 
barked in a small currachj for Man, accompanied by nearly 

* Waldron, page 185. See also Train’s History of the Isle of 
Man, vol. ii. p. 177. 

f A wild species of swine at one time common in the mountain 
districts. 

I The Currach or Coracle was a kind of light boat of the Ancient 
Britons formed of a slender framework of timber connected by short 


THE SWORD MACABUIN. 


161 


all his attendants. When about half-way the frail bark 
struck on a rock (which from that circumstance has since 
been called Kitterland) and all on board perished. 

“ The fate of the great baron and the destruction of his 
followers caused the surviving Norwegians to believe that 
Eaoch the cook was in league with the witches of the island 
to extirpate the Norwegians then in Man, and on this charge 
he was brought to trial and sentenced to suffer death. The 
unfortunate cook heard his doom pronounced with great 
composure, but claimed the privilege, at that time allowed 
to criminals in Norway, of choosing the place and manner 
of passing from time into eternity. This was readily grant¬ 
ed by the king. ‘ Then/ said the cook with a loud voice, ‘ I 
wish my head to be laid across one of your majesty's legs 
and there cut off by your majesty's sword Macabuin, which 
was made by Loan Maclibhuin, the dark smith of Dron- 
theim.' 

“ It being generally known that the king's scimitar could 
sever even a mountain of granite, if brought into immediate 
contact with its edge, it was the wish of every one present 
that he would not comply with the subtle artifice of such 
a low varlet as Eaoch the cook; but his majesty would not 
retract the permission so recently given, and therefore gave 
orders that the execution should take place in the manner 
desired. 

“ Although the unflinching integrity of Olave was admired 
by his subjects, they sympathized deeply for the personal 
injury to which he exposed himself rather than deviate 
from the path of rectitude. But Ada, the witch, was at 
hand; she ordered toads' skins, twigs of the rowan-tree, 

pieces of wood and covered with hides. They were sometimes so small 
as not to consume more than three hides in their manufacture. It 
was in such a boat that St. Maughold was cast ashore at the head 
which bears his name. 


162 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


and adders* eggs, each to the number of nine times nine, 
to be placed between the king's leg and the cook's head, 
to which he assented. 

“All these things being properly adjusted, the great 
sword Macabuin, made by Maclibhuin, the dark smith of 
Drontheim, was lifted with,the greatest caution by one of 
the king's most trusty servants and laid gently on the neck 
of the cook; but ere its downward course could be stayed, 
it severed the head from the body of Eaoch, and cut all 
the preventives asunder except the last, thereby saving the 
king's leg from harm. When the dark smith of Drontheim 
heard of the stratagem submitted to by Olave to thwart 
the efficacy of the sword Macabuin, he was so highly 
offended that he despatched his hammerman, Hiallus-nan- 
urd, who had only one leg, having lost the other when 
assisting in making that great sword, to the Castle of Peel 
to challenge king Olave or any of his people to walk with 
him to Drontheim. It was accounted very dishonourable 
in those days to refuse a challenge, particularly if connected 
with a point of honour. Olave, in mere compliance with 
this rule, accepted the challenge, and set out to walk against 
the one-legged traveller from the Isle of Man to the smithy 
of Loan Maclibhuin in Drontheim. ‘ They walked o'er 
the land and sailed o'er the sea,' and so equal was the 
match that when within sight of the smithy, Hiallus-nan- 
urd, who was first, called to Loan Maclibhuin to open the 
door, and Olave called out to shut it. At that instant, 
pushing past him of the one leg,the king entered the smithy 
first, to the evident discomfiture of the swarthy smith and 
his assistant. To show that he was not in the least 
fatigued, Olave lifted a large forge-hammer, and under 
pretence of assisting the smith, struck the anvil with such 
force that he clave it not only from top to bottom, but also 
the block upon which it rested. Emergaid, the daughter 


EMERGAID. 


163 


of Loan, seeing Olave perform such manly prowess, fell 
so deeply in love with him, that during the time her father 
was replacing the block and the anvil, she found an oppor¬ 
tunity of informing him that her father was only replacing 
the studdy to finish a sword he was making, and that he 
had decoyed him to that place for the purpose of destruc¬ 
tion, as it had been prophesied that the sword would be 
tempered in royal blood, and in revenge for the affront of 
the cook's death by the sword Macabuin. 1 Is not your 
father the seventh son of old Windy Cap, King of Norway ?' 
said Olave. 1 He is/ replied Emergaid, as her father en¬ 
tered the smithy. f Then/ cried the king of Man, as he 
drew the red steel from the fire, ‘the prophecy must be 
fulfilled.' Emergaid was unable to stay his uplifted hand 
till he quenched the sword in the blood of her father and 
afterwards pierced the heart of the one-legged hammer¬ 
man, whom he knew was in the plot of taking his life." 

The sequel of the legend is that Olave married the fair 
Emergaid, and from that marriage descended a long line of 
kings of Man down to Magnus, the last of the race of God¬ 
dard Crovan. 


164 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


CHAPTER XII. 

Port Erin.—St. Catherine’s Well.—Brada Head and Copper Mine. 
—View from Grammah.—Fairy Hill, Fleshwick Bay.—Manx pea¬ 
santry, cabins, carranes, and Sunday blankets.—Origin of the names 
Lezayre and Arbory.—The Friary.—Upper limit of the boulder- 
clay.—Grenaby.—St. Mark’s.—The Black Fort and Sir Walter 
Scott.—Granite blocks and Goddard Crovan’s Stone.—Structure 
of granite.—Bubble of South Barrule.—Ascent of the mountain. 
—Evidence of great cataclysmal action.—Strike of parallel moun¬ 
tain-chains.—Mines and Minerals.—Slieauwhallin.—Witchcraft. 
—Tynwald Mount.—Ancient ceremonies. 

Port Erin (or as it is sometimes called, Port Iron) presents 
a genuine specimen of a Manx fishing village. Old herring- 
nets spread upon the thatch of cottages, and big stones * 
tied at each corner to keep all safe down; semi-putrid fish 
drying in the sun against the walls; pigs and poultry 
roaming about and picking up refuse; the heads and en¬ 
trails of hake and congers; heaps of the shells of the 
limpet, periwinkle, scollop, and whelk; old inverted boats 
hauled up and ranged along the walls; lobster-pots strewed 
about on the shore; and rumpy cats basking in the sun. 

'Tis a splendid beach, and the prettiest bay in the island ! 
If it were on the southern coast of England, it would beyond 
all doubt become a favourite watering-place. A little of 
the public money would make it a valuable haven, and a 

* Generally speaking the thatch is tied down by sugganyn (straw 
ropes) made fast to pieces of stone (called bwhid suggane) which jut 
out from the walls, though not unfrequently (almost always in the 
case of hay and straw stacks) the ropes are fastened to large stones 
which haug down loose on every side. See the frontispiece view of 
King William’s College from the Creggins. 


GRAMMAH. 


165 


great accommodation to the herring fleet when lying off 
the western coast of Man. Her Majesty's mail has been 
landed here when it could not be landed in Douglas; but 
there is no great landed proprietor resident on the spot, 
no one to plead the claims of the poor fishermen, and so, 
like Derbyhaven, with great capabilities it lies neglected 
and almost useless*. 

How magnificently does Brada Head rise up, shutting in 
the northern angle of this horse-shoe bay ! The mines of 
copper there, which at the beginning of the seventeenth cen¬ 
tury seem to have been wrought to some extent, have latterly 
been almost abandoned. The only copper at present raised 
on the island seems to be at Laxey, where it is worked along 
with the lead and zinc and afterwards separated by hand. 
The mouth of the mine is with difficulty accessible when 
the tide is out. 

In proceeding across from Port Erin to Fleshwick Bay on 
foot we cross the little hill Grammah, from which a very 
fine view is presented. It is probably the only point at so 
low an elevation where both the east and west side of the 
island can be seen at the same time. We catch a view of 
Dalby Point near Peel, and of Castletown and its neigh¬ 
bourhood, and turning round south-westward we have a fine 
view of the Calf Islet and the Stack. Just in the hollow 
here on the northern side of the hill, and in the meadows 
at the west end of Bushen parish church, there is a magni¬ 
ficent tumulusf, known by the name of Cronk-na-mooar 

* St. Catherine’s Well gushes out of the sand by the sea-shore. 
In the old maps of the island we find mention made of St. Cathe¬ 
rine’s Chapel, but it has disappeared along with the Chapel at Port 
St. Mary, and that which once existed in this parish at Balla-keill- 
Moirey (the place of Mary’s Cell or Chapel), as the name plainly in¬ 
dicates. 

t It is 450 feet in circumference and 40 feet in height, and sur¬ 
rounded by a ditch. 


166 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


and Fairy Hill. In so many instances * it has been deter¬ 
mined by actual examination that these barrows or elevated 
mounds of earth, as well as the cromlechs and the so-called 
druidical circles, are places of sepulture, that it seems 
useless to note the conjectures which have been hazarded 
by different persons as to the original intention of this 
carnedd in the valley here at our feet. 

It may be remembered f that Reginald, son of Olave the 
Black, was slain here in 1249 by the knight Ivar; as we 
have however the record of his interment in the church of 
St. Mary of Rushen, this is evidently not his mausoleum. 
Nor is it certain that any battle took place on that occasion 
between the followers of Reginald or Ivar, otherwise we 
might presume that it covers their remains. It is probably 
of a very much earlier date than the thirteenth century. 

In descending from our station on Grammah towards 
the parish church, some gravel-pits on the road-side give a 
good insight into the structure of the drift-gravel platform, 
and it is well to examine it at this point in immediate con¬ 
nexion with the underlying boulder-clay, which is very 
finely developed in the cliffs at the head of Port-Erin Bay. 
The scooping-out of the tertiary gravels at the period of 
the elevation of the land may be well studied in this im¬ 
mediate neighbourhood. 

* See the Archaeological Journal, vol. i. p. 142, and vol. iii. p. 223. 
Chaloner, in his Account of the Isle of Man, writes thus : “ Whilst I 
remained on the island I caused one of those round hills to be opened, 
in which were found fourteen rotten urns or earthen pots placed with 
their mouths downwards, and one more neatly than the rest in a bed of 
fine white sand containing nothing but a few brittle bones, (as having 
passed the fire,) no ashes left discernible : hereabouts are divers of 
these hills to be seen; but in other parts of the isle few and di- 
spersedly ; some of these being environed with great stones picked 
endways in the earth.”—Chalorier’s Account, p. 10. 

t See page 101 supra. 


FLESHWICK BAY. 


167 


An excursion hence into Fleshwick Bay will never be 
regretted by any true lover of the wild and stupendous in 
Nature’s beauties, though the road for carriages is none of 
the best. Brada and Ennyn Moar, sinking down precipi¬ 
tously into the western sea with bluff and frowning look*, 
were at one time quite separated by a narrow channel cor¬ 
responding with the Kitterland Strait, through which, 
during the pleistocene period, the sea continually flowed. 
Now they are connected by the upheaved tertiary sea-bottom. 
A sufficient inroad has however been made in these gravel 
and clay beds to form a snug little creek tolerably secure 
from all winds but the north-west for only very small fish¬ 
ing craft. 

I have been in few places where a sense of solitude rested 
more powerfully upon me than here. It has often put me 
in mind of some of the more sequestered valleys in Wales, 
Cumberland, or the Peak of Derbyshire, as I have watched 
the tiny sheep t perched goat-like upon points of rock, or 
dashing headlong J in their fright at the stranger adown a 
rugged chasm, the tinkling of the bell and their shrill 
bleat echoing most wildly from mountain to mountain. 
Here will be heard, I verily believe, more Manx than in 
any other part of the Sheading, and the simple habits of 
the natives can scarcely be studied in a better locality than 

* Three winters ago a fine vessel, the * Wilhelmina ’ of Glasgow, 
bound for Leghorn, was dashed to fragments against these adamant¬ 
ine precipices, and every being on board of her perished. It was 
utterly impossible to render any help from the shore, though attempts 
were made by letting down ropes from the crags above. 

t Quarters of mutton may frequently be had not weighing more 
than 8 lbs. 

x Instead of walls and hedges, in the Isle of Man the fields are 
mostly divided by banks of earth, on the top of which gorse is sown, 
and forms a tolerable fence. To prevent the cattle, horses, cows and 
sheep from climbing over, the hind and fore legs of the animal are 
fastened together by a rope or straw band. This is called lanketting . 


168 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


this. Here, if anywhere, we may expect to meet with 
carranes* instead of shoes, Sunday-blankets f for cloaks, 
bundles of gorse for gates and doors, loaghtyn J sheep and 
relics of the ancient race of purrs, and here the true 
samples of Southside Manx cabins; and their inmates are 
(generally speaking) sufficiently well-off not to be solicitous 
about anything better. They enter most fully into the 
spirit of the adage, “ Man wants but little, nor that little 
long.” They are certainly an independent race, which 
may seem to some remarkable when they consider the 
many masters they have had at different times, and the 
frequency with which the island has changed hands. I am 
however myself inclined to attribute much to the absence 
of a poor-law on the island, and to the operation of the 
insular law (to which they are very strongly attached), 
which gives power to the wife over a considerable moiety 
of the husband's goods, which she can settle away inde¬ 
pendent of his wishes or interests. An unruly son whom 
his father would cut short may thus fall back securely 
upon the more tender feelings of his mother. It has 
however frequently kept family property together, and 

* The carrane is made by placing the foot in a raw neat’s hide, 
cutting out a convenient portion, which is then drawn up over the 
foot and laced with a thong. The hair is outside. Old rags are 
sometimes placed under the sole of the foot, or portions of pitched 
sheepskin, to prevent the wet coming through. 

t In the Lex Scripta of the Isle of Man it is given for law that 
the Sunday-blanket (an equivalent of the Scotch tartan) shall de¬ 
scend as an heir-loom in the female line direct. It is to this that 
Camden alludes when he says that “ the women of the island, when¬ 
ever they go out of doors, did clothe themselves in a winding-sheet 
to keep them mindful of their mortality.”—Mr. Quayle’s MS. quoted 
above. 

+ Loaghtyn or Lugh-dhoan (lugn, mouse, and dhoan, brown ) is 
the name given to a peculiar breed of sheep having a dirty brown 
fleece, which was once common on the island, but has almost dis¬ 
appeared. 


KIRK ARBORY. 


169 


liberated estates which the dissipation of the father would 
have impoverished. Hence the affection of the islanders 
for this ancient law. 

It would be easy, on foot or horseback, to ascend the 
mountain-range from Fleshwick Bay and to take the bridle- 
road over in that direction to Peel; but it suits us better to 
return towards Castletown by the inland road for a couple 
of miles, and then to turn up the hill-side by the road to 
Grenaby, and so into the Peel road from Castletown. We 
pass on our way Christ's Bushen parish church, Colby 
glen and Arbory church, and turn off at the Friary, an 
ancient Cistercian cell in connection with the Abbey of 
Rushen. It is amusing to note sometimes the strange 
reason assigned for the names of places; thus Chaloner 
tells us* Kirk Christ's Rushen is so called from “ being 
built on the side of a rushy bog;" Kirk Arbory, because 
formerly surrounded with trees arbour-like, and Kirk 
Christ's Lezayre because it is “ placed in a sharp air." 
For my own part I am inclined to give the following de¬ 
rivation of the names. The parish churches of Christ's 
Rushen and Lezayre are dedicated in honour of the Holy 
Trinity, and it may not be easy to determine why the 
name of the second person in particular has been applied 
to them. They stand respectively in the sheadings of 
Rushen and Ayre. We have before t noted the origin of 
the name Rushen, in St. Russin, a fellow-labourer of St. 
Columba, and I know no reason why Lezayre should not 
be derived from the Manx lesh, towards or belonging to, 
and Ayre, the name of the sheading J. Again, if we look 

* Chaloner’s account, page 6. + Page 58, supra. 

J The only other two parishes on the island not called by the 
name of the patron Saint are Ballaugh and Jurby, and the reason 
plainly is to avoid the confusion of two St. Mary’s and two St. 
Patrick’s on the isle. There was the abbey church of St. Mary of 

I 


170 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


at the old map of the island*, which Chaloner himself 
has given in his hook, we find Kirk Arbory written Kirk 
Kerebrey. Now we know that St. Cairbre, a disciple of 
St. Patrick, attained to considerable celebrity towards the 
close of the fifth century, and though Sacheverell states, 
seemingly on his own authority, that the patron saint of 
Kirk Arbory is St. Columba, I am much more disposed to 
give that honour to his senior St. Cairbre, and to conclude 
that, just as Kirk Conchan has been corrupted into Kirk 
Onchan, so Kirk Cairbre has easily slidden into Kirk 
Arbory. 

We ascend the mountain-side by the road which turns 
up between Parville and the Priaryf and passes by Balia 
Clague. The road traces along the upper limit of the 
boulder clay, and we begin to be struck with the number 
of large granite blocks which rest upon the surface; they 
have largely afforded materials for building, but we still 
find them in the banks on each side of the road, and on 
the top of the hill before we descend toward Grenaby there 
is an accumulation of them in the corner of a farmyard. 

The view of the southern basin of the island from this 
point is particularly fine. We are sufficiently elevated to 
have the whole spread out as a map before our eyes, and 
to comprehend it almost at a glance, and at the same time 
we are sufficiently near to dwell upon and to note dis¬ 
tinctly any object about which we are specially interested. 

Rushen, and so the other St. Mary was called Ballaugh or Balla- 
lough (the place of the lake). There was St. Patrick of the Peel, 
and so the other St. Patrick was called Jurby, from the isle of Jurby 
in which the church stood. * See Plate IV. 

t A relic of the ancient building may be remarked in an old barn, 
whose windows and doorway have somewhat of an ecclesiastical 
character : all else has disappeared. Of the old mill nothing now re¬ 
mains but the sluice. It was anciently called Bemaken, Bimaken 
and Brimaken. 


THE BLACK FORT. 


171 


Descending to Grenaby we come upon a well-wooded 
valley, through which the Silverburn has cut its way, and 
the old mill and the contiguous bridge form nice subjects 
for the sketch-book. The road ascending towards Barrule 
has been cut through a mass of the boulder clay, and pre¬ 
sents a convenient section for its study. There is a road 
leading hence direct across the country for St. Markus, but 
it is hardly practicable for vehicles. The more advisable 
route is to continue on the road which runs on the brow of 
the hill skirting the western side of the valley of the Silver- 
burn, till we get into the Peel road near Ballahot. Here 
again, just before we descend to Athol bridge, we note, at 
the point where the road-cutting exposes the old red con¬ 
glomerate resting on the upturned and contorted schists, 
a fine accumulation of granitic blocks, and there is, as we 
shall see, the Silverburn valley interposed between them 
and their origin. 

After proceeding a couple of miles on the Peel road, we 
may if we choose turn off on the right hand by a good road 
leading to St. Markus, and visit the spot which Sir Walter 
Scott has rendered famous as the Black Fort in f Peveril 
of the Peak'*. Hardly a trace now remains of the old 
Danish rampart; but the field where it stood (a portion 
of glebe which the present chaplain of St. Markus has re¬ 
claimed out of a dreary waste) has been christened after 
the “ Great Unknown,” whose description of the locality 
is both highly picturesque and faithful f. It is not far 

* Yol. i. p. 264, edition 1822. 

t The famous granite boulder weighing between twenty and thirty 
tons, known by the name of Goddard-Crovan’s stone, stood close by. 
It was broken up by the owner of the field about twenty years since: 
some fragments of it are built into the parsonage. The old legend 
of the stone is, that Goddard lived with his termagant wife in a great 
castle on the top of Barrule. Unable to endure the violence of lit r 
tongue, he turned her unceremoniously out of doors; after descend- 

I 2 


172 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


from St. Mark's chapel on the western side hard by the 
little purling brook, which rising in the granitic boss of 
South Barrule, and taking a southerly course, meets the 
Silverburn a little above the Crossag bridge at Ballasalla. 
The stream is choked up with the blocks of granite, and 
they are accumulated against every salient angle in the 
valley, and spread out in every little alluvial flat for a con¬ 
siderable distance. 

It is very plain that the accumulation of granite blocks 
in this direction is owing to a very different cause to that 
which has lodged them in the valley of the Silverburn at 
Grenaby, and perched them on every eminence along the 
mountain-range both on the eastern and (as we shall see) 
the western sides of it, and even on the very summits of 
South Barrule and Irey-na-Lhaa. We must certainly mark 
here the different effects of alluvial and diluvial action. 
But we must keep in mind also the fact, which the gravel 
boss on the Calf of Man has tended to establish, that the 
sea-level at one point in the period of the boulder forma¬ 
tion, was at least 400 feet higher relatively with the land 
in this neighbourhood than at present. It would therefore 
almost wash the base of this granitic boss on South Barrule. 
It was a glacial period, one in which the carrying power 
of ice was much brought into play, and therefore the 
granite blocks which the little burns, taking their rise in 
that eminence, brought down to the sea were frozen into 
shore-ice, drifted off a mile or two by the currents along 
the coast and stranded here and there on the lower emi¬ 
nence where they accumulated on the deliquescence of 
the ice. We may in this way account for their occurrence 

ing the mountain some distance, imagining herself out of his reach, 
she turned round and began to rate him so soundly at the full pitch 
of her voice, that in a rage he seized on this huge granite boulder, 
and hurling it with all his might killed her on the spot. 


GRANITIC BUBBLES. 


173 


over the greater part of the southern basin of the island 
without having recourse to any violent cataclysmal action, 
since when we come to examine the matter, we find that 
all the points of the occurrence of these blocks which lie 
to the east and south of the granitic boss are at a lower 
level than it; but we must plainly look to some other 
cause to explain their occurrence on the western and 
south-western side of the boss at a much greater elevation. 

Now let us examine this great ellipsoidal granitic bubble. 
It rises up in a fine dome, around the base of which mantle 
a series of metamorphosed rocks, gneiss and mica-schist *, 
passing gradually into the ordinary clay-schist of the 
island. Great masses of white quartz rock lie strewed 
about on the surface, and have been carried along with the 
granite blocks a great distance to the south-westward f. 
It presents a complete wilderness of blocks , dreary and 
desolate and black with heather; the very blades of coarsest 
grass seem to struggle hard upon it for a miserable exist¬ 
ence ; here and there a swampy hollow has gathered 
together a foot or two of peat, where the cotton-grass 
{Eriophorum polystachion) finds a wretched habitat. 

Baron Yon Buch, in his description of the Brocken, in a 
paper read before the Berlin Academy of Science, (De¬ 
cember 15, 1842,) has given us a good insight into the 
structure of these granitic bubbles. The beautiful bell¬ 
shaped form of that mountain, as presented to persons ap¬ 
proaching it from Elbingerode by way of Schierke, is par¬ 
ticularly striking. There is an exquisite repose in the 
landscape which rests upon its parabolic surface, of which 
the outline is so distinct, that a small cottage on the top, 
which would hardly be noted on other mountains, stands 

* I have, from the north side of this boss near the Foxdale mines, 
specimens of mica-schist which contain imperfect garnets. 

f A dyke of white quartz cuts through the eastern side of the 
boss from north to south. 


174 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


out prominently as a small wart. We might at a distance 
suppose it smooth and polished, but an actual approach 
exhibits it as covered with innumerable blocks, heaped on 
each other without any appearance of regularity. 

Now these two very general phsenomena, the regularly 
circular form of granitic mountains, and the breaking up 
of the surface into millions of blocks, seem to depend on 
one another in some relation. Baron Yon Buch suggests 
that granite mountains are lifted up in a certain plastic 
condition, not as lava in a perfectly fluid state filling up 
fissures, but in thick ellipsoidal bubbles, by forces acting 
from beneath; in the ultimate cooling and contraction of 
the upper dome-shaped surface, it will necessarily break up 
into a vast number of blocks, forming what have not been 
unaptly termed “ seas of rocks.” At the same time the 
granite arranges itself in cooling into large concentric 
layers, gradually diminishing in size, until at last the inner¬ 
most nucleus appears cylindrical, as may be seen in bosses 
of small extent, and this remarkable concentric arrange¬ 
ment may very readily be mistaken for stratification. 

The granite of South Barrule* is a true granite, consist¬ 
ing of flakes of mica, and small crystals of pinky-white 
quartz in a matrix of white felspar, the felspar greatly 
predominating. A somewhat coarse and not very hard 
rock is the result, of which the general appearance when 
wrought is not unlike some of the coarse specimens which 
I have seen of millstone-grit. Till lately it has only been 
used in buildings in its rough state, occasionally for gate¬ 
posts and farm-rollers, but within the last year a company 
has been formed, who have commenced working a quarry f 

* The surface of this granitic bubble is about a mile long, by three 
quarters of a mile wide. 

f It has been wrought into excellent millstones, and the new 
church of St. John near the Tynwald hill is being erected wholly of 
granite from this quarry. 


AGE OF THE GRANITE. 


175 


for its export in a wrought condition. It has a slight 
tendency to decompose in concentric layers, which is pro¬ 
bably due to the predominance of felspar; but if care be 
taken in reference to this, in the arrangement of the blocks 
in building, there is no doubt, from the evidence afforded 
by old cottages and barns on the island, that it will be 
found a very durable material. 

Of the age of this granitic bubble I can only offer the 
negative evidence, of its not having appeared at the sur¬ 
face at the period of the old red conglomerate, from the 
absence of any boulders of it in that formation in all re¬ 
searches hitherto on the island. But these boulders do 
appear in the boulder-clay formation. Either then its 
elevation took place in the interval between the carboni¬ 
ferous epoch and that of the pleistocene tertiary beds ; or, 
if it were anterior to the carboniferous epoch, it has been 
since exhibited on the surface in consequence of that ex¬ 
tensive denudation, of which we have other clear evidence 
as having passed over the island*. I am inclined to this 
latter view, though still supposing a second elevation of the 
granitic mass, during which were injected into the cracks 
and fissures then formed those el vans or granitic veins f 
which we find penetrating far into the schists round about 
this boss, three of which are cut through in the Eoxdale 
minej. 

The whole of this district forms a grand mining country, 

* See the last chapter. 

t See Map I., section across the island. 

X The granite of the veins is much finer than of the great mass 
of the boss. I have specimens from an adit which passes under the 
Peel road, which seem to consist almost entirely of felspar, with 
some large crystals of schorl. The richness of the mineral-veins 
increases as they approach the granitic mass; and at the contact, I 
have been informed, the quantity of silver in the lead-ore was found 
to average 108 ounces per ton. 


176 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


and has been opened at several points along a line running 
E.N.E. and W.S.W. (which is the general strike of the 
productive veins) between Glen Rushen and Ellersley in 
Maroun parish. The Beckwith mine in Glen Rushen, the 
Cronk Vane (white hill) mine on the north-eastern side 
of South Barrule, and the Foxdale mines (including 
under this latter term the Cornelly or Jones' vein), be¬ 
long to one company, who hold them on lease from the 
Crown. The Mona mine at Ellersley is in the Bishop's 
barony, and is held from him on lease by a different com¬ 
pany. 

The distribution of the mineral veins of the common 
sulphuret of galena (lead), in this neighbourhood is some¬ 
what singular, approaching rather to that of mountain- 
limestone districts than of Silurian countries. The veins 
often swell out into large sops, which sometimes terminate 
again in serines or small rake-veins, spreading out from 
one great trunk. There is therefore necessarily great un¬ 
certainty aud speculation in the working. The miner 
comes suddenly upon a vast body of ore, of which he had 
previously little or no indication; in the midst of his work, 
whilst following up, as he imagines, a continuous pipe-vein 
from fifteen to twenty feet in width,, as suddenly it seems 
to die out, and without the least warning he finds his 
mine exhausted and his works stopped*. 

The ascent to the summit of South Barrule is by no 
means difficult. There is a very fair road leading over the 
pass between that mountain and Irey-na-Lhaa, which com¬ 
municates with Colby, Arbory and Grenaby, and with the 
Peel road from Castletown near the sixth milestone on the 
western edge of the granitic boss. In following the road 
from this latter point, we shall be tracing the course along 

* For an account of the mines in the Isle of Man, see Appendix, 
Note K. 




GRANITE BOULDERS. 177 

which the blocks of granite from the boss have been driven, 
and we shall find them diminishing in number and size 
the further we proceed. The height of the pass above the 
granitic boss is about 200 feet, and the granite boulders 
have been driven over it to the western side of the moun¬ 
tain-range, and occur scattered at wide intervals over a 
large extent of country, and may be met with in the bed 
of the Glenmeay river, into which they have been carried 
by the streamlets which flow into the vale of Glenrushen. 
We catch them here and there running alofig the ridge 
which unites Irey-na-Lhaa with South Barrule, and I have 
picked up a few of them the size of a good cannon-ball 
quite on the top of Irey-na-Lhaa, a height of 1445 feet 
above the sea, and near 700 feet above the top of the 
granitic boss*. But the most remarkable circumstance is, 
that in ascending from the pass to the summit of South 
Barrule we fall in with three or four of considerable size, 
and there is one which I have noted within sixty feet of 
the top of the mountain, and quite on the western side of 
it, certainly not less than two tons weight. The summit 
of South Barrule is in a direct line between this granite 
boulder and the granitic boss whence it has come, and the 
difference of height is 788 feet. But there is a slight 
depression between the granite boss and the ultimate rise 
of the mountain, across which the boulder must have 
been transported, viz. that in which the sixth milestone 
stands, and this milestone is distant about a mile and a 

* I have taken the heights as given by Dr. Berger, in his paper 
in the first volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of 
London, as ascertained by barometrical observations. According to 
this measurement (which I believe very near the truth) South Bar- 
rule is 1545 feet, Irey-na-Lhaa, 1445 feet, the granitic boss (which 
he calls Dun-how), 757 feet, the pass between South Barrule and 
Irey-na-Lhaa, 983 feet, the sixth milestone on the Peel road 
from Castletown, 692 feet above the mean sea-level. 

i 5 




178 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


half from the top of the mountain. Hence we have a rise 
of 853 feet in a mile and a half up which the granite 
boulder ascended to the top of South Barrule, and then 
slid down some sixty feet on the other side. Had there 
been but one boulder, we might perhaps have concluded 
that it had been carried thither for some purpose by 
human agency, but the circumstance of there being so 
many scattered at random all over the surface of the moun¬ 
tain precludes such a supposition. 

Here then, it seems to me, we have the evidence of some 
great diluvial action, an indication of enormous waves w r ith 
great carrying power sweeping over the surface of the 
island, and breaking upon the mountain summits. How 
far the transport of these granite boulders may have been 
aided by their being frozen (perhaps) into masses of ice, 
must remain a mere speculation; but I do not see how it 
is possible, with any conditions of relative sea-level, to 
account for the phenomena here presented to us by any 
known effects of ice alone, and without taking into the 
reckoning the agency of some great cataclysm or series of 
cataclysms. Here if anywhere certainly we must have 
recourse to the theory of great waves of translation pro¬ 
posed for our acceptance by the gifted author of the 
Silurian System. 

The scene from the summit of South Barrule is of a 
most magnificent character, not presenting the wildness 
and vastness of the Cumberland, Welsh or North British 
mountains, but perhaps a greater variety. England, 
Scotland, Ireland and Wales, surrounding the blue ocean, 
in which like some monster ship the Isle of Man seems to 
float, are caught sight of on a clear day from as it were 
one of the mast-heads of the vessel. r Ihe importance of 
this look-out is seen by the selection of the spot in the 
‘ Trigonometrical Survey J for connecting the triangulation 


MOUNTAIN RANGE. 


179 


of Ireland with Great Britain. All the more notable points, 
both on the coasts of the Irish Sea and for a considerable 
distance inland, come within the uninterrupted sweep of 
our instruments, if we except the neighbourhood of Kirk¬ 
cudbright in the south of Scotland, which is hid by the 
intervening loftier eminences of Sneafelland North Barrule 
in the north of the Isle of Man. 

How easy is it on a bright summer day, when seated 
beneath the pile of stones which crowns the summit of the 
mountain, to enter into the feelings of the noble Earl of 
Derby, where writing to his son Charles*, he says, “ When 
I go on the mount you call Barrule, and but turning me 
round can see England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, I 
think shame, so fruitlessly to see so many kingdoms at 
once (which no place, I think, in any nation that we know 
under heaven can afford such a prospect of), and to have so 
little profit by them !” 

The geologist could hardly desire a better point for ob¬ 
taining a bird's-eye view of the arrangement of the insular 
mountain-chain, and the relation it bears to the coast line 
and the tertiary formation of the lowlands. He finds 
himself here clearly upon a saddle whose axis runs E.N.E., 
with the beds of dark glossy schist dipping off towards 
Castletown on the one side and Peel on the other; at the 
same time there are some traces on the southern side of 
the mountain of a fault in the same direction as this axis, 
as if in the upheaval the saddle had cracked on that side, 
and permitted the N.N.W. portion to be somewhat more 
elevated than the other. 

This same ridge or saddle is continued in a direction 
W.S.W. to the summit of Irey-na-Lhaa, where it termi¬ 
nates abruptly. It seems to die away more gradually 

* In 1643. See Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 438. 


180 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


towards the E.N.E., passing over the granitic bubble on 
Dunhow, and sinking down into the lower hills of Maroun 
parish*. 

Parallel to this ridge we have that which ought pro¬ 
perly to be called the great central axis passing through 
Slieauwhallin *j* and North Barrule as most prominent ex¬ 
treme points, and including Sneafell the highest mountain 
of the island and Greebah 1478 feet high. There is again 
another secondary range to the north-west of, and parallel 
to, this, containing some prominent points, in which we 
may include Rock Mount near Lhargydhoo, SartelJ, 
Slieaunyfraughane, Pelier and Mount Karrin. 

Between these ranges are very deep synclinal depres¬ 
sions, which form the drainage of the country, as indicated 
by several of the rivers or their main branches. Other 
valleys are thrown off at right-angles, and along these ge¬ 
nerally speaking the gathered waters find their outlet to 
the sea. 

On the summit of South Barrule there are indications 
of ancient fortifications, inclosing an irregular area of 22,000 
square yards, the thickness of the base of a wall on the 
northern side being upwards of nine yards. When we call 
to mind that the ancient name of this mountain was War- 
field or Warfell, and that on the invasion of the island by 
Richard de Mandeville §, the Manx retreated towards this 

* Strictly speaking, Garraghan and Bein-y-phot in the northern 
district are the continuation of this axis; the former is 1520 feet, 
and the latter 1750 feet, high. 

t Slieauwhallin, 978; North Barrule, 1850 feet; Sneafell, 2004 
feet. The meaning of Slieauwhallin is Whelp’s Mountain (Slieau 
Mountain and Quallian Whelp). Barrule is generally derived from 
baare top, and ooyl an apple. Perhaps it is baare-rouail, wander¬ 
ing or rambling point; Wild Mountain. 

% Sartel, 1560 feet. 

4 See Chap. VIII. supra p. 104. 


SLIEAUWHALLIN. 


181 


point as their natural stronghold, we shall perhaps be 
brought to the conclusion that at one time this was a mili¬ 
tary station of considerable importance*. 

We return into the Peel road, and descend towards St. 
John’s Valley, following the course of a streamlet which 
takes its rise in the turfy ground near the sixth milestone. 
It has cut its way in one part along the line of junction of 
the granite and the schists, and we see the two so closely 
dovetailed into each other, that the granite has the appear¬ 
ance at one or two points of being an overlying formation. 
The metamorphism of the incorporated schists is well worth 
study. The shaft of a mine has been sunk upon their 
junction, and from a vein running nearly north and south 
some valuable ore is at present being obtained out of the 
granite. 

A little lower down by the road-side near Hamilton 
bridge is a very pretty waterfall, which in rainy weather 
pours down a full torrent some thirty feet over a ledge of 
clay-schist into a wooded hollow. Hence the valley down¬ 
wards is of a very fine character, and becomes more and 
more impressive as we descend. It is refreshing after the 
desolate, treeless wildness of the granite district, to look 
upon such a rich combination of wood, water and rock, 
valley and fell, which here presents itself before us. 

Slieauwhallin on our left-hand rises precipitately, on our 
right Kenna cultivated to the top; immediately in front a 
low alluvial valley extends athwart the landscape, which is 
backed by the magnificent Grebahf, rising up dim and 

* We read in Chaloner the following statement:—“Mananan 
Mac-Bar, a pagan and necromancer, took of the people no other 
acknowledgement for their land but the bearing of Rushes to cer¬ 
tain places called Warrefield and Marne on Midsummer even.”— 
See Description, p. 9. 

t Sometimes called Greebey and Kreevey. 


182 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


gray with its two summits at points north and south from 
each other, the former to a height of 1478 feet, and the 
latter 1355. But as we descend further still, our atten¬ 
tion is arrested by, and rests exclusively on, Slieauwhallin, 
and we shudder as we look at its steep northern aspect, 
running up at an angle of 45°, and call to mind the pur¬ 
poses to which in former days superstition devoted it. 

We may have read the severe statutes enacted in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries against witchcraft, both 
in England and Scotland, under which multitudes of both 
sexes perished, and it may surprise us to learn that they 
have been repealed only within the last century and a 
quarter. But in an island like that of Man, where the 
wind howls over heathery wilds, the lightning plays upon 
the summit of cloud-capped mountains, the thunder-peal 
rolls along dark and deep valleys, and is re-echoed against 
an iron-bound coast, mingling with the roar of the stormy 
billow in sea-worn caves and fearfully dismal chasms, we 
need feel no surprise that in such an island persons should 
be found seeking gain by practising on the superstitious 
and awestruck feelings of the ignorant, or that laws should 
be enacted to suppress if possible such dark practices. Yet 
there was a classical refinement in the cruelty of these laws, 
and the manner of their execution. That dank turfy 
hollow there at the foot of Greebah was once a wide-spread¬ 
ing lake which glassed the deep shadows of the surround¬ 
ing mountains. It then had a name indicative of its cha¬ 
racter, Curragh-glass , the “ Gray-hog.” Many such pools 
in very ancient days seem to have existed round about here 
in the valley, scooped out of the great drift gravel platform 
which spreads out at a level of 125 feet above the sea. 
They have been gradually filled up by the growth of peat 
beds, but in the marl beneath the peat have been discovered 
numerous remains of the antlers and other portions of the 


THE TYNWALD MOUNT. 


183 


skeleton of the great Irish Elk*. These majestic specimens 
of the cervine tribe seem to have come down from their 
mountain-fastnesses to drink, and the weight of the horny 
foliage of their heads sunk them in the mire and they 
perished. In the Curragh-glass those who were suspected 
of witchcraft met with a similar fate, and happy were they 
if they perished by drowning there, for then they were ac¬ 
quitted of the charge laid against them, and received the 
last rites of the church in hallowed ground. But if in the 
struggle for life they managed to gain a footing again on 
terra firma, then their guilt was established, and the dread¬ 
ful alternative awaited them of finishing their wretched life 
either by fire at the stake, or by being rolled down in a 
spiked barrel nearly a thousand feet from the northern 
summit of Slieauwhallin. 

Those days of cruelty and of blood have happily long 
passed away, but, alas ! the spirit of superstition which 
prompted such deeds lingers on in the midst of Monads 
peaceful mountains, and cases of presumed witchcraft con¬ 
tinue still to be obtruded by the credulous peasantry into 
courts of justice in the Isle of Manf. 

And here we have hard by, in the centre of the valley, 
the Tynwald Mount, the "forum judiciale,” the hill of 

* There is a very fine specimen in the possession of Mr. Gell, of 
the market-place, Douglas, obtained in this locality. 

t See Mona’s Herald, January 10th 1844. Whilst these sheets 
have been going through the press, an occurrence has been noted in 
the public papers which is by no means rare on the island. A farmer 
in the vicinity of Peel lost one or two of his cattle by disease. To 
detect the evil eye or avert its malice, he determined on a cow-fire. 
With turf, coals and gorse a fire was kindled in the centre of the 
road, upon which the entire carcase of the defunct cow was placed. 
But an after-thought delayed proceedings awhile. The hide had 
been sold to the tanner, and an entire sacrifice was deemed essential. 
The hide was sent for, the purchase-price refunded, and then the 
holocaust was made. See Manx Sun, October 2nd, 1847. 


184 


THE ISLE OE MAN. 


justice itself, as Bishop Wilson explains it. Of the 
Scandinavian origin of the name, as well as of the cere¬ 
monies connected with this hill, there can be little doubt 
whatever, let the interpretation of it be what it may*; 
and deeply interesting to every patriot Manxman, as well 
as to every antiquarian, must the sight of this green 
mound be. Whenever he hears of annexation to England, 
and a representation in the British Parliament, it ought to 
be a monitor to him to stand fast for the ancient glory of 
his country, and to plead hard for the independent laws 
and the time-honoured institutions of the Isle. Hither, 
for eight hundred years and more, has the gathering of his 
ancestors been, and here has the herald proclaimed the 
decisions of the national council and the laws by which 
Man should be governed. 

The Tynwald hill, called also Cronk-y-Keeillown (i. e . St. 
John's Church Hill), is a mound of earth said to have been 
originally brought from each of the seventeen parishes of 
the island. The circumference of the base of it is 240 feet: 
it rises by four stages or circular platforms, each three feet 
higher than the next lower : the lowest platform being 
eight feet wide, the next six, the third four, and the last or 
topmost being six feet in diameter: the whole is covered 

* The term “ thing ” is a Scandinavian equivalent of the Saxon 
mote, signifying a court or judicial assembly. Thus we have the 
Moot or Motehall for the miners’ court in Derbyshire, and also the 
term Barmote, as well as the Wittenagemote of more ancient days. 
May we not connect the English word hustings with the Scandina¬ 
vian thing ? Again Wald is by some said to mean fenced, by others 
to be the same as the Saxon weald, a woody place; thus we have the 
Wealds of Kent and Sussex. The monks of Rushen in their Latin 
Chronicle wrote the word Tingualla. May not gualla be from 
Gallia? We have Cornwall cornu Galli, the Gauls in the horn of 
England, and Wallia (Wales) from the same root. Thus Tingualla 
would mean the British judicial assembly. 


THE CEREMONY. 


185 


with a short turf, neatly kept. Formerly it was walled 
round and had two gates. 

On the feast of St. John the Baptist a tent is erected 
on the summit of this mound, and preparations are made 
for the reception of the officers of state, according to an¬ 
cient custom. Early in the morning the Governor pro¬ 
ceeds from Castletown under a military escort to St. John^s 
Chapel, which is a few hundred yards to the eastward of 
the Tynwald hill. Here he is received with all due honour 
by the Bishop, the Council, the Clergy and the Keys, and 
all attend divine service in the chapel, the Government 
chaplain officiating. This ended, they march in procession 
from the chapel to the mount, the military formed in line 
on each side of the green turf walk. The Clergy take the 
lead, the juniors being in front and the Bishop in the rear. 
Next comes the Vicar-general and the two Deemsters, then 
the bearer of the sword of state in front of the Governor, 
who is succeeded by the Clerk of the Rolls, the twenty- 
four Keys, and the Captains of the different parishes. 

The ceremony of the Tynwald hill is thus stated in the 
Lex Scripta of the Isle of Man, as given for law to Sir John 
Stanley in 1417. 

“ This is the constitution of old time, how yee should be 
governed on the Tinwald-day. First you shall come 
thither in your royal array, as a king ought to do by the 
prerogatives and royalties of the land of Mann, and upon 
the hill of Tinwald sitt in a chaire covered with a royall 
cloath and quishions, and your visage into the east, and 
your sword before you, holden with the point upward. 
Your Barrons in the third degree sitting beside you, and 
your beneficed men and your Deemsters before you sitting, 
and your Clarke, your knights, esquires and yeomen about 
you in the third degree, and the worthiest men in your 
land to be called in before your Deemsters, if you will ask 


186 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


anything of them, and to hear the government of your land 
and your will; and the Commons to stand without the 
circle of the hill, with three clearkes in their surplices, and 
your Deemsters shall call the Coroner of Glanfaba, and he 
shall call in all the Coroners of Man, and their yardes in 
their hands, with their weapons upon them, either sword 
or axe; and the Moares, that is to witt of every sheading; 
then the chief Coroner, that is the Coroner of Glenfaba, 
shall make affence upon pain of life or lyme, that no 
man make a disturbance or stirr in the time of Tinwald, 
or any murmur or rising in the King’s presence, upon paine 
of hanging and drawing; and then to proceed in your 
matters whatsoever you have to doe, in felonie, or treason 
or other matters that touch the government of your land 
of Manne.” 

At the present day the chief ceremony of the Tynwald 
Hill is the proclamation in Manx and English of all the 
laws which have been passed during the year; after which 
the procession returns in the same order as before to St. 
John’s Chapel, where the laws receive the signature of 
the Governor, Council and Keys, and the business of the 
day is finished*. 

* Tn the neighbourhood of Tynwald Hill two great battles are 
recorded as having been fought: the one between the brothers 
Reginald and Olave in 1229, for the sovereignty of the island; the 
other in 1238 between Lauchlan on the one side, and Dugal Maol 
Mhuise and Joseph, deputies of Harold, on the other. The latter 
were slain. See “ Chronicon Manniae,” p. 30, and Chap. VIII. p. 100, 
supra. 


PEEL. 


187 


CHAPTER XIII. 

Peel. —The Castle.—The Round Tower.—The Cathedral.—The 
Crypt.—Duchess of Gloucester.—Thomas Earl of Warwick.— 
The Guard-room.—The Moddev Dhoo.—Scenery about Peel.— 
Glen Helen.—The Rennass Waterfall.—Glen Darragh.—St. Tri- 
nian’s Chapel.—Coast-road from Peel to Kirk Michael.—Geolo¬ 
gical features.—Glen Willan.—Kirk Michael.—Bishop Wilson. 
—Discipline of the Manx Church. 

Halland Town, Holene Town and Holme Town, as it 
was anciently called, and more recently Peel Town and 
Peel, derives its chief notoriety from the ancient castle and 
cathedral, situated on a small rocky islet at the mouth of 
the river Neb, which flowing westward through St. John's 
vale, and separating the parishes of Kirk German and Kirk 
Patrick, making a sudden turn to the northwards, forms a 
commodious harbour near the town,—a favourite rendez¬ 
vous of the herring-fleet in the early part of the season*. 

St. Patrick's Isle is in extent about five acres, being 
simply a prolongation northward of a small spur of the 
Horse Hill, which on the opposite side of the river com¬ 
mands the town of Peel. It consists of the ordinary clay- 
scliist of the neighbourhood, having the usual north-west¬ 
erly dip of this side the mountain. Within its small area 
it contains the ruins of the venerable cathedral of St. Ger- 
manus, of the still more ancient church of St. Patrick, a 
fine specimen of a round tower, and the remains of other 
buildings, ecclesiastical as well as civil, of which the age 
and uses are in many instances extremely doubtful. The 


* For an account of the Herring Fisheries, see Appendix, L. 


188 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


whole area is surrounded by embattled walls four feet thick, 
built of mixed fragments of clay-schist and the old red 
sandstone of the immediate neighbourhood, flanked here 
and there irregularly with towers. The erection of these 
walls may well be attributed to Henry, the third Earl of 
Derby, in 1593*, probably under the direction of his son 
the Hon. William Stanley, who was that year Captain or 
Governor of the Isle, and afterwards Earl of Derby f. In 
more ancient times insular position was considered (at least 
by the Celtic races) a sufficient defence; nor is it impro¬ 
bable that some reliance was placed on the hallowed 
character of the little isle itself. The island is now 
joined at its southern extremity with the mainland by 
means of a strong stone causeway, erected within the last 
century as a breakwater to secure the harbour from westerly 
gales. 

In the midst of the green sward, which now has over¬ 
spread nearly the whole of the area within the walls, and 
forms a short, sweet pasturage, is a pyramidal mound of 
turf, of a rectangular form, facing the four cardinal points, 
and measuring about seventy yards along each side. The 

* Bishop Wilson states (History, p. 355) that Thomas Earl of 
Derby encompassedit with a wall and other fortifications; but an order 
(preserved in the Lex Script a of the Isle of Man) dated February 
18th, 1593, issued from Lathom House, directs that the two garri¬ 
sons of Castle Rushen and Peel should be again erected. If forti¬ 
fications had previously existed at Peel, they were destroyed by 
Robert Bruce in 1313. The manner too in which the walls of the 
fortress join on to St. German’s Cathedral, show them to be certainly 
posterior to that building. Simon would never have built his beau¬ 
tiful chancel to range evenly with, and form part of, the walls of a 
fortress. 

t He received from James I. afresh grant of the island, on terms 
equally liberal with those granted by Henry IY. to his ancestor Sir 
John Stanley in 1406. This grant was confirmed by the English 
Parliament, a.d. 1610. 


THE ROUND TOWER. 


189 


angles have well-nigh disappeared, and it presents but the 
rude outline of its ancient proportion. It seems to have 
been an old Danish fort, thrown up probably about the 
beginning of the eleventh century*. 

Close by this mound, perched on the highest point of 
the island, rises the Round Tower, with its antique masonry 
almost wholly of the old red sandstone, regularly laid in 
courses of long and thin stones with the wide jointing 
filled in with coarse shell-mortar of extreme hardness. It 
is in every respect similar to those of Ireland, so admirably 
described by Mr. Petrief; and its position, a little to the 
north of the ruined church, seems to tally remarkably with 
the view which he has taken of the double purport of these 
buildings, as belfries and as keeps or places of strength for 
the protection of sacred utensils, books, relics, and other 
valuables, and into which in cases of sudden attack the 
ecclesiastics to whom they belonged might retire for secu¬ 
rity. There is a little door facing the east at the lower 
part of the tower, six feet nine inches above the ground, to 
which access seems to have been gained by a ladder; four 
small square-headed apertures near the top face the cardinal 
points, and one other is seen lower down on the north-west 
or seaward sidej. 

* Mr. Grose, in his “ Antiquities of England,” vol. iv., gives it as 
his opinion that “ from this eminence the commanding officer ha¬ 
rangued his garrison.” Mr. Train believes this to have been the 
hill named Santwart, or Saint-hill, mentioned in the “ Chronicon 
Manniae” as the spot where the great battle was fought between 
Reginald and Olave in 1098. 

t See the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, &c., by George 


Petrie, R.II.A. vol. i. Dublin, 1845. 

ft. in. 

X Circumference of the Tower near the base ...44 6 

Internal diameter at the door. 5 9 

Height of the Tower about . 50 0 




190 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


But the great point of attraction is the venerable Cathe¬ 
dral *, on the south-eastern side of the isle. 

St. Patrick, on his departure from the Isle of Man in 
447, left behind him Germanus, a holy and prudent man, 
“ad regendum et erudiendum populum in fide Christi/* 
says Jocelinust. This was sixty-nine years prior to the 
foundation of the See of Bangor, and one hundred and 
fourteen before the mission of St. Augustine. Here then 
we stand upon the vestiges of the Cathedral-church of the 
most ancient existing See of the British Isles J. But of the 
original church of St. Germanus not a trace, as far as we can 
point out, remains. The building, of which we see here the 
ruins§, is cruciform, and was begun by Simon, who became 
Bishop of Sodor in 1226. His work is plainly the chancel: 
its style is early English, with somewhat of an admixture 
of Norman character. It corresponds in the main with the 
architecture of the Cathedral-church at Drontheim, and is 
interesting in this view on account of the known connection 
of this See of Man and the Isles with that Archiepiscopate||. 

The central tower, which is square and has a long square 
staircase-turret, rising to a height of sixty-six feet at the 
south-western angle, is evidently of a somewhat later date, 
though the chancel arch is early English. The north arch of 
the tower is early decorated, and the south arch somewhat 
later, as is also the western arch. The transepts are also 

* Adetailed account of the Cathedral of St. Germanus willbe found 
in a highly valuable paper, by the Rev. J. L. Petit, in the Archeolo¬ 
gical Journal, No. 9, p. 49. 

t Sacheverell’s Survey of the Isle of Man, p. 109. 

J It must he borne in mind that St. Patrick was on his way to 
Ireland, where he founded the See of Armagh, when he left Germanus 
in the Isle of Man. 

§ Bishop Hildesley was the last bishop enthroned in this Cathedral. 

|| The Bishops of Sodor and Man obtained their consecration from 
the Archbishop of Drontheim for many generations. 


THE CRYPT. 


191 


of a decorated character, though with later insertions. 
The south transept has a western door, and near it a niche 
for holy water, and over against it on the opposite wall is a 
bracket for an image *. 

The nave is of ruder workmanship throughout. It would 
seem to have had a south aisle, the piers and arches of 
which have been built up and later windows inserted, 
though it is not altogether improbable that the piers may 
have been originally incorporated in the wall with a view 
to the future enlargement of the building by the addition 
of the south aisle. 

The battlemented character of the central tower, with the 
north and south transepts, is very remarkable, as presenting 
a combination of military and ecclesiastic purposes in the 
same building. It is both a cathedral and a fortress, 
though this does not appear to have been originally in¬ 
tended by Bishop Simon when he built the chancel. Under 
the chancel is a fine crypt, thirty-four feet by sixteen. A 
series of arched ribs springing from thirteen short pilasters 
support a pointed barrel vault: the entrance to it is by steps 
within the thickness of the south wall of the chancel, and 


* The following are the dimensions of the building, as taken by 
Mr. Petit:— 


ft. in. 


Internal length of chancel . 36 4 

length of nave. 52 3 

tower from east to west . 25 11 

Total length inside .. 114 6 

Length of north transept (inside) . 20 4 

Ditto south transept . 22 0 

Total width at intersection. 68 3 

Width of chancel and nave. 20 1 

Ditto north transept . 19 10 

Ditto south transept . 18 8 

Height of chancel-wall and of nave . 18 0 

Thickness of the walls about. 3 0 















192 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


it is lighted by a small aperture under the chancel east 
window. 

Shakspere, in the second part of his play of Henry the 
Sixth, has made allusion to the Isle of Man as the place 
whither “ dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloster’s wife,” should 
after three days* penance be sent to live “in banishment with 
Sir John Stanley.” He, or the author from whom he has 
borrowed the substance of the second and third parts of 
that play, are clearly guilty of an anachronism in thus 
bringing together these two personages. From the events 
detailed at the commencement and end of that part of the 
play, the period occupied by it lies between the years 1445 
and 1455, but Sir John Stanley had died in 1432, and was 
succeeded by Thomas, who appears hardly to have resided at 
all on the Isle of Man, being for a period of more than six 
years engaged as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and afterwards 
for five years one of the commissioners for the defence of 
Calais. The fact however of the confinement and death of 
the Duchess within the walls of Peel Castle is generally 
allowed, and this crypt under the chancel of the cathedral 
is pointed out as her prison-house.* They tell you, says 
the marvellous-loving Waldron, that ever since her death 
to this hour a person is heard to go up and down the stone 
staircase of one of these little houses on the walls constantly 
every night as soon as the clock strikes twelve. The con¬ 
jecture is that it is the troubled sprite of this lady, who died 
as she lived, dissatisfied and mourning her fatef. 

* In later years, even down to tlie episcopate of Bishop Wilson, 
this crypt seems to have been used as the place of confinement for 
persons guilty of offences coming under ecclesiastical censure, such 
as incest and adultery. 

t Description of the Isle of Man, p. 110. “In the reign of 
Henry YI. among the friends of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, his 
Duchess, Dame Eleanor, was arrested. Roger Bolyngbroke, a man 
expert in necromancy, and a woman called Margery Jourdemain, 


PRISONERS. 


193 


Dame Eleanor was not the only state prisoner confined 
within these sea-girt walls. We read of Thomas Earl of 
Warwick, in the reign of Richard II., being banished 
hither, probably through the influence of Sir William 
Scroop, afterwards Earl of Wiltshire, who was at this time 
king of Man, having purchased the island from Sir William 
Montacute, Earl of Salisbury. On the downfall of Richard 
his favourite the Earl of Wiltshire* was beheaded, and the 
Earl of Warwick was set at liberty by the Duke of Lan¬ 
caster, afterwards Henry IV. In after-times we have 
notice of Edward Christian (who had been lieutenant- 
governor of the isle, and whom Sir Walter Scott seems to 
have confounded with his- nephew William Dhone,) being 
confined a prisoner here by the Earl of Derby. And if 
these state-prisoners had liberty of range of the entire 
circuit of the isle, ’t were no very miserable confinement, 
as far as scenery at least is concerned. There to the south 
rises the noble Horse Hill with its notable land-mark f; a 
bold coast sweeps onwards to Contrary Head; the eastern 
side of the hill has a fine rounded swell forming a choice 
sheep-walk; then at its base comes the silvery Neb rippling 
over its gravelly bed adown a verdant valley, where grassy 

sumamed the Witch of Eye, were charged with having at the request 
of the Duchess of Gloucester devised an image of wax like unto 
the king, the which image they dealt so with that by their devilish 
sorcery they intended to bring the king out of life, for the which 
reason they were adjudged to die.”—Falgan’s Chronicle, p. 394. 

* The following are the terms of the record of sale of the island 
to Sir William Scroop :—“ Wilhelmus le Scroop emit de Domino 
Wilhelmo Montacuto Insulam Euboniae id est Maumee : Est nempe 
jus ipsius Insulae, ut quisquis illius sit Dominus, Rex vocetur, cui 
etiam fas est Corona aurea coronari.”—See Sacheverell’s Account 
of the Isle of Man, p. 72. 

t Corrin’s Folly (as it is usually called) is said to have been 
erected by a farmer of Peel as a mausoleum for his “ gude wife.” 

K 


194 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


slopes are here and there interrupted by clumps of trees 
and studded with neat villas. The vale in which stands 
the parish church of St. Patrick spreads out far south¬ 
ward, and is embayed in the majestic amphitheatre of 
mountains which form the continuation westward of the 
ridge of Slieauwhallin. The South Barrule chain peeps up 
at various points beyond. Par to the eastward we look 
up the St. John's Valley, and here and there catch sight 
of the different mountain-crests which hedge it in and give 
such a rich diversity to the Glenfaba sheading. There is 
a lower chain in front towards the north-east which sweeps 
round from Rock Mount towards the coast nearLhergydhoo 
and Ballanayre. It consists of clay-schists which have 
been tilted on an axis* by an intrusive mass of hornblende 
rock, of which the outburst may be seen by the road-side, 
where it passes at the southern termination of the range 
from the Peel side down into the lovely Rennass valley. 
There is every reason for believing this upheaval to have 
been posterior to the Carboniferous sera, for it appears to 
have tilted also the old red sandstone of this neighbour¬ 
hood to a high angle, and there is no evidence whatever of 
any disturbance of the area between the old red and the 
carboniferous limestone. It is very unfortunate that the 
whole line of junction of the schists and the old red sand¬ 
stone in this neighbourhood is covered up by the tertiary 
gravels and clays except at the point where they come out 
together on the sea-coast, and here all the beds are so 
shattered by intrusive masses of igneous rock that we can 
learn nothing of their history in connection. Northward 
beyond this point the shore loses its hold character, and 
the fine sweep of Kirk Michael Bay and the further reach 
to Jurby Point, thirteen miles from Peel, presents, by its 


* See Plate I., Section across the island. 


THE CASTLE SCENERY. 


195 


remarkable terrace-like appearance, a singular contrast to 
the nearer mountain scenery. The transition from the 
primary to the tertiary strata, and the character of the 
drift-gravel platform as a raised sea-beach, is nowhere more 
distinctly marked. 

On a remarkably clear day the view which the Irish Sea 
presents to us on looking out over the ruined battlements 
of Peel Castle is that of a large inland lake, the Scotch 
and Irish coasts seem so completely to embay it. Burrow 
Head, in the south of Scotland, seems but a continuation 
of the land beyond Jurby Point. Luce Bay runs far inland, 
and its head cannot be seen, but the Mull of Galloway 
comes stretching down again towards us from the blue 
distance westward and southward; and then again the 
coast-line from Belfast Lough and the Copeland Isles to 
the mouth of Lough Strangford, and so on to Ardglas 
and Dundrum Bay, shuts up the scenery to the far west. 
And then southwards of Dundrum Bay the Mourne moun¬ 
tains rise up again with imposing magnificence and run 
far enough down the channel to be shut up by Contrary 
Head, which is but a mile or two off. 

But the picture is not complete without taking in the 
ancient-looking town of Peel, which will remind northerns 
of some of the Highland sea-side towns built upon this 
same old red sandstone. It may be, after all, a question 
whether or no Peel itself does stand upon the old red 
sandstone, or whether the schist on which Peel Castle 
stands passes under the river and actually underlies the 
drift-gravel and boulder-clay, in which the foundations of 
the houses of the town are dug. Perhaps the Coal Com¬ 
pany of Peel will undertake to solve the question by their 
borings in this neighbourhood ! The old red sandstone 
however comes out finely from under the tertiary beds a 
couple of hundred yards north of the town, and presents a 

k 2 


196 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


bold cliff to the westward and southward, though the sea 
has made great inroads upon it, and has dug out a fine 
series of caves and romantic gullies all along the coast 
where it is exposed. These gullies are a favourite resort 
of pebble-seekers*. At the base of them, generally 
speaking, is a fine gravelly beach, on which a little careful 
searching will discover madrepores, grey and red cornelians, 
agates and jaspers; the former have been broken off from 
the carboniferous limestone, which there is every reason to 
believe lies exposed a few hundred yards from the shore; 
the latter have either been washed out of the old red con¬ 
glomerate and primary rocks of this neighbourhood, or 
may have come from the washing of the drift-gravel by the 
mountain streamlets which cut their way through it and 
bring down with them alluvial deposits into these gullies. 
Yet these things could, after all, have no interest in the 
eyes of the lonely prisoners in Peel Castle. Had Fenella 
been a reality (as the guide, who shows the sally-port where 
she is said to have been last seen, gravely assures us), we 
might well fancy her fairy steps tripping along the gravelly 
beach, and ever and anon snatching up the sparkling 
pebbles which the last tide had cast at her feet. But for 
the rest, kingdoms were the baubles which glistened in 
their eyes, and one of them at least was so successful in 
the pursuit as to gain for himself the title of the King¬ 
maker. 

We descend from the Cathedral to the guard-house 
hard by the ancient gateway. Though one of the latest- 
erected portions f of the Castle, and solidly built, decay 

* The White Strand about a mile northward of Peel is particu¬ 
larly noted. 

t “ The tower, and other parts of the castle about the entrance, 
which is south of the Cathedral, seem to belong to the early part of 
the fourteenth century; the masonry is strong and careful, though 


THE SPECTRE-HOUND. 


197 


has set its cold grasp upon it; the dew-damp rests upon 
the walls which of old echoed with the soldiers' mirth, and 
the hearth which blazed brightly is now desolate and black. 
But the Wizard of the North has thrown an air of enchant¬ 
ment over it which will endure till the notes of the last 
minstrel's lay have ceased to sound*. 

The story of the spectre-hound or black dog of Peel 
Castle is thus told by Waldron f :— 

" They say that an apparition, called in their language 
the Modcley dhoo, in the shape of a large black spaniel, 
w r ith curled shaggy hair, was used to haunt Peel Castle, 
and has been frequently seen in every room, but par¬ 
ticularly in the guard-chamber, where, as soon as the 
candles were lighted, it came and lay down before the 
fire in presence of all the soldiers, who at length, by being 
so much accustomed to the sight of it, lost great part 
of the terror they were seized with at its first appearance. 
They still however retained a certain awe, believing it to 
be an evil spirit which waited to do them hurt, and for that 
reason forbore swearing and all profane discourse while in 
its company. But though they endured the shock of such 
a guest when all together, none cared to be left alone with 
it. It being the custom therefore for one of the soldiers 

not very regular, and the blocks of stone larger than those used in 
other parts of the building.”—The Rev. J. L. Petit, in the Archaeo¬ 
logical Journal, Part 9. 

* But none of all the astonish’d train 
Were so dismay’d as Deloraine; 

His blood did freeze, his brain did burn, 

’T was fear’d his mind would ne’er return; 

For he was speechless, ghastly, wan. 

Like him of whom the story ran 
That spoke the spectre-hound in Man. 

Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel, 
f Description of the Isle of Man, 1731. 


198 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


to lock the gates of the castle at a certain hour, and carry 
the keys to the captain, to whose apartment the way led 
through a church, they agreed among themselves, that 
whoever was to succeed, the ensuing night, his fellow on 
this errand should accompany him that went first, and by 
this means no man would be exposed singly to the danger, 
for the Moddey dhoo was always seen to come out from that 
passage at the close of day, and return to it as soon as the 
morning dawned, which made them look upon this place as 
its peculiar residence. 

“ One night a fellow being drunk, and by the strength 
of his liquor rendered more daring than ordinary, laughed 
at the simplicity of his companions; and though it was 
not his turn to go with the keys, would needs take that 
office to testify his courage. All the soldiers endeavoured 
to dissuade him ; but the more they said the more resolute 
he seemed, and swore that he desired nothing more than 
that the Moddey dhoo would follow him as it had done the 
others, for he would try whether it was dog or devil. After 
having talked in a very reprobate manner for some time, 
he snatched up the keys and went out of the guard-room. 
In some time after his departure a noise was heard; but 
nobody had the boldness to see what occasioned it, till the 
adventurer returning they demanded the knowledge of 
him; but loud and noisy as he had been at leaving them, 
he was now become sober and silent enough; for he was 
never heard to speak more; and though all the time he 
lived, which was three days, he was entreated by all who 
came near him either to speak, or if he could not do that, 
to make some signs by which they might understand what 
had happened to him, yet nothing intelligible could be 
got from him, only that by the distortion of his limbs and 
features it might be guessed that he died in agonies 
greater than is common in a natural death. The Moddey 



\ 




' . “ ■ >s • 1 ] ” 11 ! 



t , V 





































































































GLEN HELEN. 


199 


dhoo was however never seen afterwards, nor would any¬ 
one attempt to go through that passage; for which reason 
it was closed up and another way made. This accident I 
heard attested by several, but especially by an old soldier, 
who assured me that he had seen the Moddey dhoo oftener 
than he had hairs on his head.” 

Our journey to the north of the island from Peel may be 
made either by the coast-line or by the more inland route 
through the Rennass valley. This latter is much the 
further of the two as respects distance, but it has so many 
beauties peculiarly its own, that the general tourist in 
making the detour will find himself amply repaid; and if 
he has time at his disposal, he may be induced perhaps still 
further to lengthen the journey by following the valley and 
the stream beyond the point where the road to the north 
turns up Craig Willie and passes by Cronk-y-Voddey*. 
The continuation of Glen Helen in the direction of Little 
London beyond this point, is not in itself so striking as 
the more southern portion of the valley which the high 
road traverses. Its chief interest is derived from the 
Rennass waterfall and the wildness of the scenery around 
the spot where the waters fret and tremble, then dash 
onwards over the jagged edge of rock, and pour their 
whitened volume into the seething caldron below. But to 
this fall there is no carriage-road as yet, and the distance 
of a couple of miles thither and back from the highway t 
must be made on foot or horseback. 

* Cronk-y-Voddey, the hill of the dog. It will be observed that 
according to the genius of the Manx language, the m at the begin¬ 
ning of the word moddey dog is, in a state of construction, changed 
into v. See Appendix, M. “ On the Manx language.” 

t We cannot speak of turnpikes in the Isle of Man, as no tolls 
are taken upon the highways, which are kept up chiefly by a tax of 
ten shillings per annum upon each pair of wheels of any vehicle . 



200 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


It would after all, perhaps, be more desirable to make 
this point the object of a separate visit from Douglas, and 
the excursion might then include a peep into Glen Darragh 
(the Yale of Oaks), where is a (so-called) Druidical temple 
in good preservation, the Mona Mine of Ellersley on the 
Bishop’s barony, and the ruins of St. Trinian’s Chapel* 
on the road-side near Crosby. The pedestrian or horse¬ 
man having visited these places and the Rennass water¬ 
fall, might return to Douglas by the Baldwin valley, by 
taking the pass across the mountain between Sartel and 
Greebah. 

The coast-road from Peel to Kirk Michael lies, except 
at one point, wholly upon the terrace of the drift-gravel, 
descending however in several places into the deep narrow 
valleys, which have been eroded in the drift partly by the 
action of the mountain streamlets and partly by that of 
the sea when the land was more depressed than it now is. 
These valleys are extremely picturesque, often well-wooded, 
studded over with cottages, opening out into the sea at the 
lower extremity with a fine alluvial terrace, and at the 
upper backed by some fine sweep of the mountain-range. 
They offer to the geologist peculiar facilities for the study 
of the pleistocene series, as well as several points of inter¬ 
est connected with the disturbances of the palaeozoic rocks, 
and he will therefore almost necessarily adopt the coast¬ 
line in his journey in gsj\ 

* This parish seems to abound in mined oratories. There is one 
on the estate of Balia Crink, another at Balia quinney-mooar, a third 
at Balla-lougli, and a fourth at Ballingan. 

t In following the coast-line northward from Craig-Mallin, he 
travels through the beds of the old red sandstone in the ascending 
order. The upper portion is greatly charged with carbonate of lime, 
and effervesces strongly with acids. It contains characteristic De¬ 
vonian fossils, such as Favosites polymorpha, though there is every 
probability that it passes very soon into the lower carboniferous 


GLEN WILLAN. 


201 


A description of Glen Willan, which is but a few hun¬ 
dred yards southwards of the point where the coast-road 
and the inland road unite near the Mitre hotel and the 
Ecclesiastical Court-house of Kirk Michael, will serve as a 
sample of all the other glens which have been excavated in 
the pleistocene series. 

The road from Peel to Kirk Michael is carried across 
the lower part of Glen Willan by an embankment, with a 
bridge of a single arch in its centre, which permits the 
egress of the waters brought down from Slieaudhoo and 
Slieau-ny-fraughane. At the western extremity of this 
embankment a rustic gate admits to a winding path along 
that side of the valley towards the sea. A prominent 
point about 300 yards down presents itself to the artist as 
the proper station for taking a sketch. The foreground 
consists of the sloping hanks which skirt either side of 
the purling streamlet with a profusion of broom, eglantine, 
gorse, daisies, primroses, veronicas and white campanelles. 
The sides of the valley incline at an angle of 40°, and its 
breadth at the bottom averages about 150 yards. Look 
upwards inland in a direction S.S.E. -how exquisitely 
grouped are the cottages and trees by the mill and the 
rustic bridge ! A fine section is presented of the drift- 
gravel platform by the road-cutting in the north-eastern 
escarpment. We have atop about twenty-five feet of very 

series of the island. Whether the limestone which supplied the 
kilns about a mile north of Peel was simply a band of corn-stone in 
the Devonian series, o a true limestone of the Carboniferous age, 
there are hardly sufficient data to determine. At the mouth of the 
streamlet (Claveg) which runs down from Lhergydhoo, the old red 
sandstone is seen to rise on a bold undulation which in the next 
creek northwards is shown to have been caused by the protrusion of 
the mass of igneous rock which cuts off the Devonian beds to the 
north-east of a line hence to Rock Mount. 

K 5 


202 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


coarse gravel*. This rests on a great thickness of fine 
sand, which passes into the loamy sand of the boulder 
formation. To the right is a rounded range of low hills 
of this formation, rising nearly 100 feet above the level of 
the drift platform. We have a magnificent view of the 
mountains beyond,—Sartel, Slieau-dhoo, Slieau-ny-fraug- 
hane and Slieau-hearne. The clouds flit across their sum¬ 
mits and cast down creeping shadows into the ravines and 
along the verdant slopes. 

If we turn round again to the north, and look out at the 
opening of the valley towards the sea, we trace the windings 
of the stream in the low alluvial flat, and beside it fisher¬ 
men’s cots, with the usual concomitants. The cattle stray 
upon the very verge of the cliff. The black-cap and spar¬ 
row twitter in the gorse. The lark rises up aloft from the 
gravel terrace, and at heaven's gate sings; whilst the plover 
whirls around in mazy eddies with well-feigned anxiety 
about that corner of the field which is furthest off from 
the spot where she has deposited her four brown speckled 
eggs. The nearer murmur of the stream mixes with the 
farther-off dash of the breaker on the shore, and the wild 
cry of the curlew which sweeps by the mouth of the glen 
with the cackling of the geese which are nibbling the short 
herbage a little higher up. 

Beyond, afar off, over the deep blue wave, the Mull of 
Galloway and Burrow Head are seen embracing Luce Bay; 
the sand-hills about Bishop's Court hide the rest of the 
Scottish coast. Here we have Kirk Michael close at hand, 
spreading out towards the mountains, but clustering round 
the modest church and the grave-yard where rests the 
earthly tabernacle of the holy Thomas Wilson. The humble 
palace where he dwelt during the half-century of his epi- 

* See Plate VIII. and the explanation of it. 


KIRK MICHAEL. 


203 


scopate lies in the wooded glen beyond, and the tallest of 
the trees which we catch sight of there are said to have 
been planted by his hand. Let us remove and take a 
nearer view of these different objects. 

Kirk Michael Churchyard has some points of interest 
which may cause us to loiter awhile within its precincts. 
Those old Runic monuments at the gateway indicate that 
for at least 800 years this spot has been the resting-place 
of the ancestry of the tenants of this ecclesiastical village; 
and they indicate that the persons to whose memory they 
were erected professed themselves Christians, which the 
more recent headstones might not perhaps lead us to con¬ 
clude of the tenants of the graves beneath them. Yet the 
inscriptions of the more ancient stones are almost wholly 
hieroglyphic. This much however we can learn of the 
owner of one of them, that he was a Nimrod in his day, a 
mighty hunter as well as warrior. The animals of the chase 
as well as the beasts of the field are sculptured alongside 
of the figure of a warrior bearing his javelin and shield*. 

* This Runic monument, which stands just outside the church¬ 
yard gate, is in very good preservation. It is 7 feet 4 inches in 
height, 20 inches wide and 5 inches thick, of the blue clay schist of 
Spanish Head. The inscription is cut in Runes along the edge of 
the stone, and has been as usual variously read and interpreted. 

Sir John Prestwich read it (as given in Bishop Wilson’s Life by 
Crutwell)—“ Jualstr ! : Ujnr : Thurulf!: Ein ! : Rautha : Ri ! Ti! 
Kru !: Thono : Aft: Frithu : Dutliur !: Jao : ” and he translates 
it thus: “ Walter son of Thurulf, a knight right valiant. Lord of 
Frithu the Father Jesus Christ.” There is no doubt of this being in¬ 
correct; the reading, in fact, is not consistent throughout. Mr. 
Train (‘ Isle of Man,’ vol. ii. p. 36) gives the following as the reading 
and translation of Mr. Just, of Bury, Lancashire :—“Voalfar : Sunr : 
Thurulfs: Eins : Rautha : Rasti: Krus : Thono : Aft: Frithu : 
Muthur: Sino —“ Voalfar, son of Thurulf the Red, raised this cross 
for Frithu, his mother.” A view of this stone is given in the Archaeo¬ 
logical Journal, vol. ii. p. 76 ; and in Kinnebrook’s Runic Monu¬ 
ments of the Isle of Man.’ 


204 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


And we seem to have proof before us that since that time 
a change has taken place in the class of animals which 
must be considered upon the isle as ferae natura. The deer 
tribe was game in those days. But even the laws of 
Howel Dha could avail nothing against the advance of 
agriculture and civilization, and the area of the Manx 
mountains, even if placed altogether within a ring-fence, is 
much too circumscribed for the rambles of the cervine 
race*. 

Another of these Runic monuments standing on the 
wall to the north of the gateway, in good condition, con¬ 
tains also amongst other devices that of a stag, and a 
figure apparently playing upon a harp. The churchyard 
is rich in these remains (there are five altogether), and 
they form a beautiful link in the chain of monumental hi¬ 
story. We have first of all rude uncarved blocks and pillars 
frequently placed in a circle, as the Cairn Vichael in this 
parish; then these elaborately wrought crosses, with their 
singular Runic inscriptions and strange devices; we have 
then the coped coffin-lid, such as that preserved at Rushen 
Abbey; of sepulchral brasses, there are no recorded sam¬ 
ples in the Isle of Man; lastly, we see the miserable, un¬ 
meaning, and too oft unchristian productions of the last 
two centuries, standing up a dense black crowd in every 
churchyard around. 

Yet there is a recent monumental erection in the grave¬ 
yard of Kirk Michael which may well excite attention. 
The parish-register says,—“ The Right Reverend Father 
in God, Dr. Thomas Wilson f, Lord Bishop of Sodor and 
Man, buried near the east gable of the church, March 11th, 

* An attempt was made by James the seventh Earl of Derby to 
preserve deer upon the Calf Islet, but without success, as they swam 
across the Sound. 

t For an account of Bishop Wilson, see Appendix, N. 


CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 


205 


1755 ” Directing thither onr steps, not to the east end 
of the present church, but of the old one, of which the 
gable has been preserved, we find a plain tomb railed in 
with iron, and bearing the following inscription*: “Sleeping 
in Jesus, here lieth the body of Thomas Wilson, D.D., 
Lord Bishop of this Isle, who died March 7th, 1755, aged 
93, in the 58th year of his consecration. This monument 
was erected by his son Thomas Wilson, D.D., a native of 
this parish, who, in obedience to the express command of 
his worthy father, declines giving him the character he so 
justly deserves. Let this island speak the rest.” 

If that appeal be made now, what must be the answer 
as far as the Church is concerned ? Bishop Wilson, in 
speaking of the general readiness with which ecclesiastical 
censures were submitted to in his episcopate, gives as one 
reason that there was no professedly Christian community 
besides the Established Church to which excommunicate 
persons might betake themselves; and in his ‘ History of 
the Isle of Man 3 he states that, excepting a family or two of 
Quakers, Dissenters of any denomination there were none. 
Such also is the testimony of his successor Bishop Hil- 
desley when writing to the Archbishop of York in 1762f :— 
“ The adult natives, to a man I think I may say, are con¬ 
formists to the established communion of the Church, and 
so exact and punctual for the most part J in their attend¬ 
ance on the public offices of divine worship (there being 
no less than 600 at the communion in a country parish 
church at Easter), that there is little or no occasion for 
presentments on this head.” 

* In the same churchyard we find the graves of his successors in 
the episcopate, Ilildesley and Criggan; the former died in 17/2, 
aged 74; the latter in 1813. 

t See Butler’s Life of Bishop Hildesley, p. 418. 

X For the discipline and order of the Manx Church, see Appen¬ 
dix, O. 


206 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


What is the position of church matters now ? Almost 
within the short space of the mile which intervenes between 
the churchyard where Bishop Wilson is interred and the 
palace where he lived are two meeting-houses *, filled each 
succeeding Sunday with parishioners zealously attached to 
Wesleyanism in its different connections. And such is pretty 
generally the case throughout the island. The meeting¬ 
houses outnumber the parish churches in the proportion 
of four to one, and the congregations assembling within 
each respectively are very nearly in the same proportion. 
Yet the people are not hostile to, though alienated from, 
the Church, and there is far more hope of their restoration 
to the conformity of their fathers than is the case with the 
Separatists on the other side of the water. And it is per¬ 
haps not too much to say, that the remembrance of the 
great benefits, temporal as well as spiritual, conferred upon 
this isle by the bishops of the Church, foremost amongst 
whom stands, and will ever stand, the holy and apostolic 
Wilson, has contributed very largely to keep up the feeling 
which doubtless still exists in the minds of the great mass 
of the population, that the Established Church is their 
church, and that it is a real blessing to the isle. 

* One of them is a few hundred yards to the south of the church 
gates. 


bishop's court. 


207 


CHAPTER XIV. 

Bishop’s Court.—The Grounds.—The Chapel.— Orry’sHead.—Pro¬ 
bable continuation of limestone series in the north of the Island. 
—Formation of the Curragh.—Ballaugh.—Jurby.—Megaceros 
marl-pits.—Use of marl.—Overthrown ancient forests.—Ancient 
lakes.—Legend of Mirescogh.—Sulby Glen.—Snaefell.—The 
Bride Hills.—Admiral Thurot.—The Ayre.—Point Cranstal.— 
Grand development of Boulder series.—Ramsey.—Ballure Glen. 
—Sky Hill.—Port-le-Voillen.—Kirk Maughold.—The Holy Well. 
—Vision of Gil Colum.—The Dhoon granite.—Laxey.—Orry’s 
Cairn.—Cloven Stones.—Return to Douglas. 

The demesne of Bishop's Court consists of (very nearly) 
one square mile of glebe. There is a peculiar charm about 
it in the contrast of its richly wooded glen with the open¬ 
ness of the surrounding country, and the magnificent pile 
of mountain which rises up from it in one continuous 
verdant slope towards the east. There is a repose upon 
the spot which specially suits its character as the residence 
of a Christian Bishop*. 

The palace itself is in perfect keeping; Bishop Wilson's 
description still holding good, in which he speaks of it as 
“ a good house and chapel (if not stately, yet convenient 
enough), large gardens and pleasant walks, sheltered with 
groves of fruit and forest trees." When he came to it he 
beheld it sadly fallen to ruinf, the bishopric having been 

* For a catalogue of the Bishops of Sodor and Man, see Ap¬ 
pendix, P. 

t The date of the original palace is not known, though there is 
no doubt of its being extremely ancient. It is said to have been a 
castellated building, and that one part of it had the name Orry’s 


208 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


vacant five years; but with bis characteristic energy, he 
immediately commenced a substantial restoration; and 
though very valuable improvements have since been made, 
the substance of the present building may still be con¬ 
sidered his. In the grounds, the avenue of elm-trees (now 
thickly hung with ivy), which closes in the northern ex¬ 
tremity of the lawn, is always pointed out as the planting 
of the earlier days of his episcopate, and a favourite prome¬ 
nade in the later*. Here, walking one cold damp day, 
after evening prayers, in the ninety-third year of his life 
and the fifty-eighth of his consecration, he caught that 
cold which terminated his earthly labours, and permitted 
his longing spirit to enter into the rest of that Paradise 
where he enjoys the blessed society of just men made 
perfect. 

The chief additions and improvements made to the 
palace and grounds since his day have been under the di¬ 
rection of Bishops Murray and Short. The former rebuilt 
the chapel, which the latter again refitted. The chair on 
the north side of the holy table is a relic of Bishop 
Ilildesley, and on convocation-days the chair of the vene¬ 
rable Wilson is brought out and occupied by the Bishop, 
whilst in conference with his assembled clergy. 

The parishes of Kirk Michael and Ballaugh each of 
them claim a share in Bishop's Court, as the streamlet 
which winds down the glen in which it is situated forms 
the boundary between the two. Following this streamlet 
upwards towards the mountain, we catch through the trees 

Tower, and was surrounded by a ditch. "We have historical evidence 
of its having been occupied by Bishop Simon in 1230. 

* His coffin was made of the wood of one of the elms which he 
had planted on his arrival upon the island, and which he caused to 
be cut down and prepared for the purpose a few years before his 
death. 


orry's dale. 


209 


here and there lovely glimpses of the country far and near, 
the Scotch and Irish coasts ever on a clear day presenting 
their faint blue outline on the extreme verge of the horizon. 

Downwards the stream leads into Orry’s Dale and 
towards Orry's Head. Where the former begins to open 
out to the sea, we fall in with a limekiln; where is the 
limestone ? The boulders of limestone have been found in 
sufficient quantities along the shore to make it worth while 
to collect them for this purpose, owing to the difficulty 
and expense of conveying lime from the southern to the 
northern portions of the island. Whence have these 
boulders come? They tumble out of the boulder-clay 
which is developed very finely along the entire coast, from 
Kirk Michael to Jurby Point, in the cliffs rising from 50 
to 150 feet above the level of the sea. 

The rake of the tide sweeping powerfully down the Irish 
Channel falling upon this coast, composed as it is of loose 
materials of sand, loam and boulders, pulls down continu¬ 
ally vast masses from the cliffs, and bears away the finer 
portions as its spoil. The boulders left behind are chiefly 
granites, syenites and porphyries, quartz-rock, clay-slate, 
old red conglomerate, limestone, and a few chalk-flints. 
Whether the last, which must have come from the north 
of Ireland, belong to the boulder formation, or are truly 
found only in the drift-gravel, I have not yet seen any 
determinate evidence. 

Let us examine the limestone boulders. Some of them 
have a deep reddish tinge, and look like a passage-rock 
from the old red sandstone into the lower limestone; the 
contained fossils are chiefly corals, madrepores and tubi- 
porites; others again are comparable to the dark limestone 
of the south of the Isle of Man in lithological character and 
organisms, and we fall in also with some containing the 
characteristic fossils of the upper or Poolvash limestone. 


210 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Now as we have at Peel very plainly the Old Red series 
of considerable thickness dipping down into the sea west¬ 
ward and north-westward, it is very reasonable to conclude 
that the basset edge, both of it and of the different beds of 
the superior limestone, curves round to the northwards, 
and passes under the northern area of the Isle of Man; so 
that it would be by no means a rash speculation at various 
points in the northern parishes, at the distance of from 
three to four miles from the mountains, to bore through 
the pleistocene series with the expectation of falling in with 
the much-sought-after, and in this neighbourhood specially 
valuable, limestone. To make such an excavation would 
evidently not be money altogether thrown away (as in all 
attempts to find coal in the south and centre of the island), 
for the excavated materials, all the way down to whatever 
rock we might happen to come to, being the very marl 
which is so largely used upon the sandy lands of the north, 
would evidently pay a large portion of the expense of the 
trial. The subjacent rock might be expected in some 
places, such as along the northern edge of the Curragh, at 
from 60 to 100 feet below the surface; it might even be 
less than this*. 

Whilst it is evident that we must look to the south of 
Scotland as the chief origin of the granites, porphyries and 
syenites which we meet with in the boulder-clay of the 
north of the Isle of Man, it is not altogether improbable 
that the limestone, old red sandstone and schist boulders 
may some of them have a more local derivation. Under 
the impression that the coal beds which dip down into the 

* In the year 1839 borings were made for coal at the Craig near 
St. Jude’s church; the following is stated to have been the result: 
five feet sand, twenty-seven feet blue marl, two feet gravel, twenty- 
seven feet blue marl, and then sand. The boring was not proceeded 
with any deeper. 


BALLaUGH. 


211 


sea at Whitehaven, and are wrought to some distance 
under it, come up again between that coast and the north 
of the Isle of Man, I have often sought for some frag¬ 
ments of the coal-measures amongst these boulders, but 
hitherto without success. 

From the mouth of Orry's Dale a fine range of sand¬ 
hills sweeps round to Ballaugh, and in passing along them 
we gradually bring within sight the entire expanse of the 
northern plain country, constituting an area of fifty square 
miles. It is a scene which may perhaps remind us of some 
portions of Norfolk, where we meet with the next greatest 
development of the pleistocene series in the British Isles 
south of the Clyde. 

At our feet lies the straggling village of Ballaugh, one 
moiety of which clusters round the old church near the 
sea-shore; the other seems to have drawn upwards and 
inland towards the high road which bends round the base 
of the mountains, and has a new church erected for greater 
convenience of access. 

That lovely valley south of the village, down which the 
river comes rippling, is Ravensdale, and contains within 
itself some exquisite wild scenery; at its head there is a 
fine pass over the mountains into Druidale and the south 
of the island. 

Ballaugh clearly stands on the platform of drift-gravel. 
If we look out northward and eastward, the eye roams over 
a low swampy country, the fen-district of the island, of 
which the local name is the Curragh. It occupies, as we 
may see, a depression in the drift-gravel several miles in ex¬ 
tent, the further bank extending in a curved line from near 
Jurby Church towards Andreas. We may compare it to 
a great inland lake fringed round with gravel-banks. Such 
in fact at one time it was, but the lake has been gradually 


212 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


drained and filled up with montane alluvial deposits*, and 
layer after layer of turf has accumulated in the damp 
hollows, sometimes to the depth of thirty feet, and reduced 
the whole to one level surface, which by burning and top¬ 
dressing with the marlf of the neighbourhood has at 
length been brought to bear the plough and to yield a good 
return for the expended capital. 

Jurby Church stands out a very conspicuous object on 
the higher ground near the headland. The name is 

* Bishop Wilson mentions the occurrence of a layer of peat three 
or four feet thick under a bed of gravel, sand and clay of some miles 
in extent. At one time I thought that he referred to some locality 
which had been inundated from the sea. I am now inclined to the 
belief that the gravel, &c. is the result of montane detritus, which 
has been spread out over the peat by the change of a river-course 
or some similar cause. 

t The advantage derived from the marl does not seem to consist 
in the quantity of lime which it contains, as this is hardly more than 
six per cent., but in the consistency which it imparts to the sandy 
soil. It is singular that it has been so little used in the south of 
the island, where it is even of better quality than in the north, and 
where the deficiency of lime can be so easily remedied. When 
Sacheverell wrote in 1703, the Manx farmers are stated not to have 
had the skill or purses to lay it out on their grounds. The marl of 
the north is of three kinds: the Andreas marl, generally red, and 
evidently of the boulder-clay formation; the Jurby, which is of a 
lighter colour with streaks of blue, and containing sometimes vege¬ 
table impressions to a great depth; this is probably the deposit of 
some of the ancient lakes; and the white shell-marl of Bal'laugh be¬ 
longing to the very ancient alluvial basins of the period of the Me- 
gaceros or Irish Elk. The preference is given to the two former, 
especially the first. About 3300 bushels per acre are laid upon 
light lands, and 2800 on those of stronger quality. The heaps 
collected in summer lie till winter commences, when the marl is 
spread and ploughed in. A bushel of marl, unheaped, weighs 
about 112 lbs.—See Quayle’s Agriculture of the Isle of Man, p. 93. 


THE CURRAGH. 


213 


evidently Norwegian, the more ancient appellation being 
St. Patrick's Isle : and insular at one time the parish 
certainly was, the sea sweeping round it westward and 
northward, and the Curragh with its out-flowing waters to 
the eastward and southward. There is a tradition that all 
the waters of the river Sulby, which now taking an easterly 
course from the mouth of the glen, flow into the sea at 
Ramsey, formerly found their outlet on the northern side 
of the island by the Lhen-Mooar. It is easily seen that a 
very little labour would, if it were necessary, turn the river 
down that way again. 

St. Jude's Church, in the parish of Andreas, is a marked 
object in the very centre of this great plane area. It stands 
on an outlier of the drift-gravel,—a kind of spur thrown out 
westward from the Andreas bank into the midst of the lake. 
The parish church of Andreas is not so readily distinguished 
through the want of a tower or spire. St. Bride's Church 
is altogether out of sight, as it lies on the other side of that 
low rounded chain of hills stretching out from Blue Head 
to Point Cranstal. 

A very great relief to the sameness of scenery through¬ 
out the wide-spreading flat area of the north of the island 
is afforded by several luxuriant patches of trees, which are 
aggregated at suitable intervals around the better sort of 
farm-houses, which occupy prominent points around the 
margin of the Curragh. The woods also stretch up the 
mountain valleys, and clothe the north-eastern face of the 
mountains themselves, and thus give a varied richness to the 
landscape, especially as viewed from the northern side of the 
Curragh in the neighbourhood of East Nappin and thence 
along the road to Kirk Andreas. Ballaugh is peculiarly 
interesting to the geologist as the locality where the 
first tolerably perfect specimen of the Great Irish Elk was 
discovered. At a farm known by the name of Balia Ter- 


214 


THE ISLE OE MAN. 


son to the eastward of the new church, and about a mile 
from the foot of the mountains, are two oval depressions 
in the drift-gravel platform *; they are on either side of a 
by-road which leads down from the great northern high 
road to the sea-shore. It was in the more westerly of the 
two that the celebrated fossil t was discovered. Mr. Oswald 
of Douglas % has well pointed out both the character of this 
basin and the circumstances under which the Elk w T as 
found. It is a small turf-bog about a hundred yards long 
by fifty wide, occupied in the central part by a pool vary¬ 
ing in size according to the moisture of the season, in which 
aquatic plants luxuriate. The superficial stratum is a 
light and fibrous peat of good quality, enveloping some 
fragments of bog-timber. The thickness of the peat in 
the centre of this basin is six feet, but it thins out con¬ 
siderably towards the margin. Under the peat is a bed of 
fine bluish-white earthy sand from two to three feet in 
thickness. This rests upon a deposit of white marl con¬ 
taining delineations of shells. The marl is of a fibrous 
laminar structure, and when dry as white as chalk; the 
shells are delineated white upon a somewhat darker ground, 
and are discovered by separating the layers, but are seldom 
if ever found in their original state. In this marl a great 
quantity of bones of the Elk were found at the first open¬ 
ing of the pit, occurring at various depths in the marl, but 

* See Plate VIII., Section from the mountain-range to Jurby 
Point. 

t Megaceros Hibernicus. See Professor Owen’s Report to the 
British Association, 1843, p.237; also his British Fossil Mammalia, 
p. 447- The figure in the 4 Ossemens Fossiles,’ tom. iv. pi. 8, is 
taken from an engraving of the Ballaugh skeleton transmitted to 
Baron Cuvier by Professor Jamieson. 

X See “ Observations relative to the Fossil Elk of the Isle of Man, 
by II. R. Oswald, Esq., F.S.A., Surgeon,” in the 3rd vol. of the 
Edinburgh Journal of Science, 1826, p. 28. 


MEGACEROS. 


215 


tlie deeper they were found the more fresh and perfect did 
they appear, and near the bottom complete heads were 
found. 

The skeleton which w T as presented by the Duke of Athol 
to the Museum of the University of Edinburgh, was found 
quite at the bottom of the marl where the bed was about 
twelve feet thick. The different bones, though partly con¬ 
nected, were in much disorder. An ingenious blacksmith 
of the village possessed himself of the skeleton, and in 
putting it together according to his own ideas of what the 
animal was, found himself short of a few bones, which he 
supplied from the relics of other animals, and it was some 
time before the fraud was discovered. 

This shell-marl would appear to rest on the boulder 
formation, according to the description given by the work¬ 
men. When they pierced it, water immediately sprung 
up and inundated the pit. It is worth while to notice that 
the peat and timber are confined to the surface of the 
basin, and that in them no remains of the Elk were found, 
and this has been universally the case in the Isle of Man. 
Under the portion of the Ballaugh Curragh which stretches 
down towards Ballamona, and pours forth its accumulated 
waters by the Carlaane drain into the sea, similar basins to 
these have been discovered* containing the remains of the 
Elk, but they are all below the great turf-bogs in which we 
meet with trunks of trees both upright and prostrate f. 

There is no doubt that great changes have taken place 
throughout this northern area, even within the period 

* See Plate VIII., Section from the mountains to Jurby Point. 

t See the statement of Bishop Wilson, History of the Isle of 
Man, p. 341 : “ Large trees of oak and fir have been found, some 
two feet and a half in diameter; they do not lie promiscuously, but 
where there is plenty of one sort there are generally few or none of 
the other.” 


216 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


which has been called historical. The old map of the Isle 
of Man performed by Thomas Durham, as given by Speed, 
Camden, Chaloner, and in Bleau’s Atlas, exhibits ancient 
lakes both in the south and north of the island*. There 
was the Malar lough in Lezayre, a lough in Andreas parish, 
and Bala lough, the corruption of which has given the 
present name of the village in its vicinity—Ballaughf. 

The great lake of Myreshaw or Mirescogh seems to have 
occupied at one time a large portion of the Curragh % near 
the base of the mountains, and so late as 1505 we read of 

* See Plate IV. In some portions of the drained Curragh have 
been found stone celts and other relics of more ancient times, such 
as coracles which were probably sunk in these ancient lakes. I have 
in my possession a celt of the simplest kind, found under the peat 
on the edge of the Curragh near East Nappin. In a meadow ad¬ 
joining Close Mooar, the property of Professor E. Forbes, were found 
a short time ago a stone axe and sharpening or edge stone a few feet 
asunder. They lay upon a bed of fine sand, covered over with a 
stratum about four feet thick of peat trunks of oak-trees, &c., and 
over the peat was a bed of blue alluvial clay to the depth of three or 
four feet. 

t Some derive the name from Balia laagh, the place of the mire. 
There are several Balia loughs in different parts of the island. 

X Sacheverell mentions (p. 3) the draining of the Curragh to¬ 
wards the close of the seventeenth century. It is probable that the 
discovery of the firs situated eighteen and twenty feet deep in the 
Curragh, with their roots still firm in the ground, but their heads 
broken off and lying to the N.E., noted by him (p. 12), was made 
at the period of this drainage. In my Memoir read before the Geo¬ 
logical Society of London, February 4th, 1846, I made mention of 
the Megaceros marl-pits at Ballaugh as drained at that period, and 
stated that the white marl of these pits is more recent than the blue 
marl of Jurby. On a closer examination, I find good reason for 
concluding that the white marl is more ancient than the deposit of 
the lakes then drained, and perhaps more ancient than the Jurby 
marl, though this is apparently an alluvium older than the forests of 
which the remains are found in the Curragh. 


LEGEND OF MIRESCOGH. 


217 


a grant of one half of the fishery of it to Huan Hesketh, 
Bishop of Man, by Thomas Earl of Derby. The names 
of several estates in this neighbourhood (such for instance 
as Elian Vane, White Island) point to their original condi¬ 
tion, as well as the nature of some of the holdings, which 
show that even since the Act of Settlement, there has been 
a large territory once occupied by water reclaimed to the 
purposes of husbandry. 

The mention of the lake Mirescogh reminds us of a 
strange legend detailed by the venerable Chroniclers of 
Rushen Abbey, which at any rate adds another link to the 
chain of evidence which we have of the great change which 
has here taken place in the appearance of the country. 

In an old document at the end of the f Chronicon Man- 
nise/ tracing out the boundary of the church-lands, we find 
mention made of three islands in the lake Myreshaw*. 
One of these islands seems to have been occupied as a 
state prison, and was once, as the good old monks tell us, 
the scene of a notable miracle wrought by the intercession 
of St. Mary of Rushen. 

One Donald, a veteran chieftain, a particular friend of 
Harald Olaveson, flying the persecution raised by Harald 
Godredson, took sanctuary with his infant child in St. 
Mary's monastery at Rushen. He was however induced to 

* “ This is the line that divides the lands of Kirkercus from the 
Abbey lands. It begins at the lake of Myreshaw, which is called 
Ilescanappayse, and goes up to the dry moor directly from the 
place called Monenyrsana, along the wood to the place called Seabba- 
Ankonatliway. It then ascends to Roselan as far as the brook 
Grysetli, and so goes up to Glendrummy, and proceeds up the King’s 
way and the rock called Carigeth as far as Deep -pool, and descends 
along the rivulet and ITeth-aryegorman; and so descends along 
the river Sulaby to the wood of Myreshaw. It encloses three islands 
in the lake Myreshaw, and descends along the old moor to Duflocli 
and so winds along and ends at the plkce called Hescanakeppage.” 

L 


218 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


come forth under faith of a promise from the king of per¬ 
fect safety. Within a short space however the king, viola¬ 
ting his sacred engagement, ordered Donald to be seized 
and conveyed to the state prison in one of the islands in 
Mirescogh. In his distress Donald prayed earnestly to 
the Lord to deliver him through the intercession of the 
blessed Virgin, from whose monastery he had been so in¬ 
sidiously betrayed. The divine interposition was not 
withheld. One day as he was sitting in his chamber 
guarded only by two sentinels, the fetters dropped from 
his ankles and he found himself free. He made the best 
of his way to the abbey of Dushen, which he reached on 
the third day, where he put up thanksgivings to God and 
the most merciful Mother for the deliverance. This de¬ 
claration, adds the chronicler, we have recorded from the 
man's own mouth. The date of the miracle is 1249*. 

In proceeding inland eastward from the sea-coast, we 
descend to a lower level from hills of the boulder clay 
formation covered with beds of blown sand, to the terrace 
of drift-gravel which fringes the great plain of the Curragh. 
The high road from Ballaugh to Ramsey runs for a con¬ 
siderable distance upon this fringing bank, and forms a 
drive hardly anywhere to be surpassed in loveliness. A 
close planting of ash and elm on either side of it presents 
an avenue for several miles in length, through the breaks 
in which we catch sight of strongly contrasted scenery on 
the right-hand and on the left. On the right we have a 
sudden and abrupt termination of the mountain-chain, 
which sinks down almost at once from its greatest altitude 
to the level of the gravel terrace. The descending gorges, 
which open out with a more gentle slope towards the plain, 
are well clothed with wood, and have been happily seized upon 
as sites for a series of beautiful villas along the whole of the 
* Chronicon Manniae, p. 39. 


SULBY GLEN. 


219 


way to Ramsey. On the left-hand a fine champaign country 
opens out to a distance of three or four miles, bounded by 
the line of low rounded hills which stretch from Blue Head 
to Point Cranstal. We catch sight of the different home¬ 
steads of the farms which are scattered throughout it, 
whose whitened walls and wreathing columns of smoke 
are just distinguished amidst the clump of trees surround¬ 
ing each of them; and around in the more open lands 
the flocks and herds occupy the reclaimed Curraghs, which 
afford rich pasturages alternating with arable land. 

But if there be one point which more than any other 
will attract the attention of even the most ordinary ad¬ 
mirer of scenery, it will assuredly be Sulby glen. The 
stream which waters it, and is the largest in the island, is 
thrown off the north-western side of Snaefell, and pouring 
down Glion-Mooar, spreads itself out on the alluvial plain, 
and after a course of eight miles falls into the sea at Ramsey. 
It is throughout a beautiful trout-stream, and in no small 
repute with our first-rate anglers. 

A fine view of the country may be obtained just at the 
entrance to the glen from the Curragh, by following a wind¬ 
ing road to the right-hand from the cloth mill up the side 
of the hill for a short distance till we reach a stone quarry*. 
At the extreme left, looking over the Curragh, is Jurby 
church standing on an eminence which forms the extreme 
north-western point of the island; beyond we have a fine 
view of the sea backed by the Mull of Galloway and the 
Scotch mountains to the north. Looking directly north 
we may track the course of the Lhen-Mooar, which was 
once the outlet of the Sulby river, a gap in the drift-gravel 

* The following note of this point occurs in my field-book. The 
great beds of schist have the appearance of being turned over on an 
axis whose strike is east and -west magnetic. The stretching has pro¬ 
duced divisional planes concentric with this axis with cross joints, 
which cause the rock to split up into rhomboidal fragments. 

L 2 


220 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


near Blue Head admitting the passage of the waters in 
that direction. The churches of St. Jude and Andreas lie 
a little to the right of a line hence to Blue Head, whence 
we mark the undulating ridge stretching out eastward to¬ 
wards Kirk Bride and Point Cranstal. This chain of hills 
evidently formed at one time a line of sand-banks in the 
pleistocene sea parallel to the then northern coast of the 
Isle of Man; and at a distance of four miles from it the 
Sulby stream, which winds at our feet and sets in motion 
yonder wheel, is richly clothed with wood, from the midst 
of which, at a point where the waters begin to flow east¬ 
ward, the Sulby school-house with its pointed windows and 
pinnacled walls peeps forth*. To the right Cronck-y- 
Shammock (the Hill of Primroses) bounds the view, shut¬ 
ting out the neighbourhood of Ramsey. It is a singular 
fantastic pile of rock standing out at the mouth of the glen, 
a giant sentinel guarding the pass to the south, and keeping 
watch and ward over the inhabitants of the great northern 
plain of the island. 

The road up Sulby glen affords the best access of any 
to the summit of Snaefell (the Snow Mountain), and the 
ascent may be accomplished in this direction with extreme 
facility, even in a vehicle, to within a short distance of the 
top. It may be approached also by the road through Glen 
Aldyn (the vale of Aldyn or Aydunf), which is nearer to 
Ramsey, and equally picturesque with Sulby Glen, as well 
as from Injebreck and Laxey, though the morasses on the 
southern side render it necessary for strangers to use some 
caution in ascending by the latter routes. 

At Sulby bridge is a good road running direct north to 

* The internal arrangement of the building is such as to provide 
a school for week-day, and a small chapel for the Sunday services. 

t Aydun was the grandfather of Ferquard, Fiacre and Donald, 
who w^ere sent to the Isle of Man to be educated under Bishop 
Conanus, wdio is said to have had his episcopal residence in this vale. 


ADMIRAL THUROT. 


221 


the parishes of Andreas and Bride, and passing the Craig 
and St. Jude’s church, and the old earthen fort of Balla- 
Churry, which is extremely well worthy of a visit*. In 
this direction the geologist will get an excellent insight into 
the structure of the northern area. The different patches 
of Curragh still remaining, and their relation to the drift- 
gravel, which has been excavated in many places and sifted 
for road materials, come very readily under his observation. 

Let us take the road on through Andreas which leads to 
the Bride Hills. We pass Braust on our way, formerly 
the residence of Archdeacon Mylrea, and further on Thu¬ 
rot Cottage, which seems to have been so christened in 
memory of the gallant French Commodore who fell in a 
naval engagement off the northern coast of the Isle of Man. 

The name of Thurot about the middle of last century 
filled with apprehension the inhabitants of the sea ports 
of Great Britain. A native of Dunkirk, at the age of fifteen 
he joined the adventures of an Irish smuggler and became 
a successful contrabandist between the shores of the two 
Monas, running spirits from Man to Anglesey, and after¬ 
wards did business on a larger and more daring scale from 
the shore of his native country. By his exploits as a pri¬ 
vateer in the war which broke out between England and 
France in 1755, he gained the command of a frigate and 
afterwards (in 1759) of a squadron of five ships, with 
which he made descents upon the coast of Ireland and 
plundered Carrickfergus. Captain Elliot, hearing of his 

* It appears to have been thrown up during the period of the 
great rebellion by the troops of Cromwell. It consists of an inter¬ 
nal rectangular area of 144 feet long by 120 feet wide, at the corners 
of which are four bastions, whose tops are about forty-eight feet 
square, all constructed of the earth which has been thrown up out 
of the ditch which surrounded the encampment. There are a great 
many barrows in the parish of Andreas, and in the churchyard some 
very interesting Runic crosses. 



222 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


exploits, set sail in quest of him with three frigates, and 
on rounding the Mull of Galloway on the 28th of Febru¬ 
ary 1760, he discovered the French Commodore at anchor 
with three vessels near the entrance of Luce Bay*. He 
attempted to embay him, which Thurot perceiving stood 
out to sea towards the Isle of Man, the scene of his earliest 
adventures, but was soon overtaken by the English squa¬ 
dron, and a sharp action ensued. The carnage on the side 
of the French was very great in consequence of the crowd¬ 
ed state of their vessels, and Thurot himself fell by a grape- 
shot as he was cheering on his men to renew the fight. 
He was thrown overboard by his own men, but was after¬ 
wards cast ashore near the Mull of Galloway, and buried 
in the grave-yard of Kirkmaiden. The bowsprit of the 
Belleisle, two yards in circumference, which was struck off 
in the action, came ashore near Bishop's Court; and in com¬ 
memoration of the action and as a trophy of victory, Bishop 
Hildesley caused it to be erected on a mount which he 
named Mount iEolus, a little above the garden of his 
episcopal residence. 

The rounded form of the hills of Kirk Bride has before 
been alluded to. They seem to have formed a sand-bank 
in the pleistocene sea at the distance of about four miles 
from the coast, and to have been subject to the action of 

* The respective squadrons consisted of the iEolus 32 guns, Pal¬ 
las 36, Brilliant 36, on the side of the English; and on the side of 
the French the Belleisle 48 guns, Blonde 36, and Terpsichore 36. The 
contest lasted an hour and a half, and was attended on the side of 
the English with the loss of only five men killed and thirty-one 
wounded. Besides their commander, the French had above three 
hundred killed and wounded in the engagement, of whom nearly two 
hundred were on board the Belleisle. Thurot had previously lost 
two of his vessels at sea. 

See Appendix to Memoirs of Bishop Hildesley, and Smollett’s 
History of England, chap. 19. page 388. 













' 


















. 


... 











THE BRIDE HILLS. 


223 


conflicting currents. It is most interesting to compare 
them with the rounded chain of low hills in the south of 
the island of the same age, as well as with the confor¬ 
mation of the Bahama Big* and King William's Bank, 
Whitestone's Bank, and Point of Ayre Bank of the present 
day. 

The view from these hills is highly picturesque in every 
direction. Looking southward, we have the fine expanse 
of the Curragh contrasted against the towering masses 
of the great insular chain. The splendid bay of Bamsey, 
with its richly wood-clad environs, the heights of Ballure, 
Skyhill and Claughbane, stretches out south-eastward and is 
shut in by the serrated precipices about Maughold Head. 
The Cumberland mountains, at a distance of between forty 
and fifty miles, present their majestic outline in the far 
east. We look up the Frith of Forth, but the shores are 
too low to allow the eye to rest upon any particular fea¬ 
ture of them. It is not till we have traced round somewhat 
northward that we begin to catch sight of the Scottish 
giants, and then the granitic range from Criffell toward 
Kircudbright is set before us. Burrow Head, at the di- 

* The Bahama Bank or Rig bears N.E. two leagues from Ramsey, 
is about four miles long from S.S.E. to N.N.W., with only six feet 
water at the south end low water spring-tides and is about half a 
mile wide. King William’s Bank (so called from the Prince of 
Orange, who was nearly wrecked on it on his way to the battle of the 
Boyne) is seven miles in length from S.E. to N.E. and half a mile 
broad. The N.W. end is east six and a half miles from Point of 
Ayre. The least depth of water on it is eighteen feet. 

The Point of Ayre Bank extends half a mile from the Point for 
one mile eastward and curves round to the south-east towards the 
Bahama Rig. There is always a ripple on it, and the current runs 
seven miles an hour. 

Whitestone Bank lies S.S.E. a mile and a half from Point of Ayre, 
with a good passage between them. It has six feet at low water spring- 
tides, is half a mile long N. and S., and a quarter of a mile broad. 


224 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


stance of hardly more than seventeen miles, appears but as 
the further bank of a wide river. We get a fine peep into 
Luce Bay, which retreats some fifteen miles inland, and is 
sheltered on its western margin by the Silurian ridge which 
forms the Mull of Galloway. 

Immediately at our feet northward we have the Ayre 
spreading out to an extent of 2400 acres, forming an ex¬ 
tremely low coast-line raised but a very few feet above the 
present sea-level. It is very plainly the newest raised 
beach of the island, at present an almost barren waste of 
sand and gravel belonging to the Crown, in which a few 
miserable gorse bushes drag out an impoverished existence, 
whilst rabbits, snipe and wild duck abound. 

The light-house on the Point of Ayre, which was at first 
close upon high-water mark, has now a good piece of bank 
extending between it and the salt water. The height of 
the tower is 106 feet; and it is furnished with two revolving 
lights, sending forth alternately every two minutes a red 
and yellow pencil of rays athwart the green waves. 

An extension eastward of the Bride Hills terminates in 
Point Cranstal. We see in the old map of the island 
that there was once a village in this neighbourhood on 
the low ground of the Ayre near the little lake Balia Mooar, 
to which the name of Cranston pertained; it seems to have 
gone to ruin, but is interesting as indicating the antiquity 
of the last raised beach, or at any rate the very slow rising 
of the land. The old town of Douglas, as was before noticed, 
stands on a similar level on a raised beach of the same age. 

Point Cranstal itself is in the same old map denomina¬ 
ted “ Shellack poynt.” It is well-worthy of study as pre¬ 
senting the finest development of the boulder series any¬ 
where to be met with in this island, or perhaps in the Bri¬ 
tish Isles. A grand cliff of clay, sand, gravel and boul¬ 
ders, rises to the height of 200 feet above the sea-level. It 



POINT CRANSTAL. 


225 


is in every stage of disintegration and decay, seamed in a 
thousand places by the little gills which burst out between 
the beds of gravel and clay, or pour down after every heavy 
rain from the corn-fields, which reach to the very edge of the 
precipice. The formation of sonorous concretionary masses, 
having the appearance of stalagmites and stalactites at the 
base of the cliffs of the boulder series, has been noticed be¬ 
fore at the locality of Strandhall in the south of the island, 
and its origin explained*. We might have noticed the 
same at many places on the Ballaugh and Jurby coasts, 
but nowhere have we such fine instances as at Point Cran- 
stal. Here they are piled one upon the other in most fan¬ 
tastic shapes at the base of every gully, and even high up 
in the cliff, wherever there has been a break and resting- 
place where the mud-charged and calcareous waters which 
have trickled over some upper beds of the boulder-clay 
series could find a lodgement. 

The great mass of clay, presenting not the least appear¬ 
ance of stratification, lies at the base of the cliff. We meet 
here and there with great cavities in it filled with fine 
sand; and it is in these cavities, generally speaking, that 
the more perfect fossils are found; but they are in such a 
friable state that they will hardly bear removal. The 
stronger-framed fossils are generally met with in the clay, 
such as Fusus antiquus and Cyprina islandica; but a frag¬ 
mentary condition is the most frequent with all of them, 
as if the sea-bottom of the time of their deposit had been 
exposed to the rolling action of great waves or the plough¬ 
ing action of icebergs f. 

* See Chap. X. supra, page 137. 

t See Professor E. Forbes’s Memoir on the Distribution of the 
existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, and the Geological 
Changes which have affected their area, especially during the epoch 
of the Northern Drift, in the first volume of Memoirs of Geolo¬ 
gical Survey of Great Britain, page 383. 

L 5 


226 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


The upper portion of the pleistocene beds at Point Cran- 
stal consists of rudely stratified gravels and sands, with 
occasionally interposed bands of marl. Throughout the 
entire mass of the cliff, boulders of granite, syenite, por¬ 
phyry, quartz, red conglomerate and red limestone are 
dispersed, but they appear to increase in size upwards, 
and sometimes attain to the weight of several tons. Similar 
blocks are scattered on the surface all over this northern 
area, especially on the tops and sides of the low hills; and 
I have little doubt that all those stones of which the circles 
which surround the ancient tumuli in this country are 
formed, are of this character, and were found within a very 
short distance of the spot on which they now are placed. 

There is a fine beach extending all the way from Point 
Cranstal to Ramsey, a distance of four miles; the cliffs of 
pleistocene marl, sand and gravel, gradually sink in 
height; and from the Dog-mills southward, as far as the 
Sulby river, at the embouchure of which the town stands, 
they are hardly more than fifty feet high. South of the 
town we again find the same beach and cliff for about half 
a mile, and then a hundred yards beyond the mouth of 
Ballure glen, the streamlet from which has cut its way 
through these drift-beds, we see the whole pleistocene 
series driven up against the old schist rocks of the island, 
which have here a direct northerly dip. 

Let us ramble up the Ballure glen, which for quiet 
beauty has not its equal on the island. Dark deep green 
woods throw their mantle over a rugged ravine, which ex¬ 
tends for two or three miles up into the wilds of North 
Barrule. A bright clear stream comes tumbling down 
from crag to crag, and sprinkles a dewy freshness upon the 
mosses and creeping thyme and hanging ivy which grace 
its border. A bridge of a single span carries the high road 
from Ramsey to Laxey across it at a point where the jag- 


RAMSEY. 


22 7 


ged schists have just opened to let the streamlet tremble 
and struggle through. Let us mount higher still, and 
follow a green grassy path which strikes upwards on our 
right-hand, and zigzags amongst the plantations which 
crown the height immediately overlooking the town of 
Ramsey. We emerge at length on a fine terrace stretching 
towards Clabane and Skyhill*, and a splendid panorama is 
opened before us. The metropolis of the north lies at our 
feet. It is a busy, active town; the mountainous district 
which separates it from Douglas, and makes the commu¬ 
nication tedious, has forced it into a sort of self-depend¬ 
ence ; so that whilst Castletown has barely trebled itself in 
the last hundred years, Ramsey has much more than qua¬ 
drupled in the same time. Its chief foreign dependence 
is on Glasgow rather than Liverpool, the steamers from 
the former place southwards touching at Ramsey, wind 
and weather permitting, and keeping up a friendly com- 

* Skyhill is noted for the military manoeuvre which placed the 
crown of Man on the head of Godred Crovan, son of Harald the 
Black of Iceland. In his attempt upon the Isle he had met with 
two repulses. Once more he got together a large armament, and 
coming by night to the harbour of Ramsey, he managed to land and 
conceal a body of 300 men on Scacafell or Skyhill. At sunrise the 
Manx attacked Godred with considerable fury; but in the heat of 
the engagement, the 300 men, rushing from their ambuscade, ter¬ 
ribly galled the Manx in the rear, and put them to rout with great 
slaughter. Godred gave his troops the option of dividing the Isle 
amongst them for an inheritance, or of pillaging it and returning 
home again. The majority chose to plunder the country; a portion 
however preferred remaining with Godred, and with them he shared 
the southern part of the island, leaving the northern to the natives, 
on condition that no one whatever should attempt the establishment 
of an hereditary claim to any part. The property of the whole isle 
and its revenues thus became vested in the Sovereign, nor till the 
Act of Settlement did the people acquire a valid title to their different 
estates. 


228 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


munication with the manufacturing metropolis of Scotland. 
The ruined church which we see above the town on the 
terrace of the northern drift, beautifully embayed in the 
woods, was erected not a hundred years ago, and conse¬ 
crated by Bishop Wilson himself when in the ninety-third 
year of his life. The church now in use (St. Paul's) stands 
in the centre of the town, and was built by subscription in 
1819. Hard by it is the Court-house, where the northern 
Deemster holds his courts. A substantial bridge of three 
arches, and 180 feet long, spans the Sulby river a little 
westward of the town, and makes a communication with 
the northern parishes of Andreas and Bride. 

The spot on which we are standing is pointed out with 
a feeling of pride by the people of Ramsey as that from 
wdiich the royal consort of our beloved Queen took a sur¬ 
vey of the outspread landscape on the morning of the 
20th September of the last year, when her Majesty glad¬ 
dened the hearts of her loyal Manx subjects by a second 
visit to the shore of Old Mona on her way from Scotland. 
His Royal Highness greatly commended the fair scene, 
and the spot whence he surveyed it has ever since borne 
his name, and is marked with a memorial pile. 

Let us journey again southwards, taking the eastern 
coast as our route. When we have passed Ballure glen 
about a quarter of a mile, the southern road divides into 
two, one of which continues to mount upwards along the 
eastern face of North Barrule, the other on the left-hand 
sinks down again to Port Lewaigue*, and so on to Maug- 
hold Head.. 

Port Lewaigue is a sweet retired nook, and might easily 
be made into a small dry harbour, conveniently auxiliary to 
Ramsey. A small spur has run out from the schists in a 
north-easterly direction for about 500 yards, and forms a 

* Called also Port-le-Voillen. 



PORT LEWAIGUE. 


229 


natural breakwater on the eastern side of the little creek; if 
it were continued in a northerly direction for about 200 
yards further, the harbour would be sheltered from every 
gale. This spur is very low, sufficiently so to be capped 
by the northern drift, which has also found a resting- 
place in the recess of the bay, and stretches a little distance 
inland*. 

On a bank by the road-side on the left-hand, as we pass 
onwards towards Maughold, we fall in with a Runic monu¬ 
ment of freestone, its height 5 feet and its width 2 
feet 8 inches. Its location is singular, and would raise 
a suspicion that there has once been one of the quarter- 
land oratories in this neighbourhood. The entire parish 
of Maughold seems at one time to have been invested with 
a somewhat higher sanctity than the other parishes of the 
isle; the church has more tokens of architectural care and 
embellishment; the churchyardf is much larger than any 
other, and the Runic and other ancient monuments are 
more abundant J. 

* See Plate I., Map of the Isle of Man. 

t It contains five statute acres. The length of the church, in¬ 
cluding the chancel, is 72 feet and its width 17. A similar propor¬ 
tion holds in most of the old Manx churches. 

X There is one Runic stone raised on steps as a market-cross in 
an open space before the church-gates, carved on both sides, though 
much injured. Its length is 6 feet 6 inches, and breadth at the 
widest part 2 feet 6 inches. Another on the south side of the church 
(an excellent model for the headstone of a grave) is 3 feet 6 inches 
in height and 2 feet 6 inches wide. A third near the eastern gable 
is 7 feet 4 inches long and 2 feet 4 inches wide. 

A singular cross of the fifteenth century stands at the left-hand on 
entering the church-gates. It is raised on three steps, and consists 
of a slender shaft 4 feet 10 inches high, surmounted with a peculiar 
quadrangular entablature 3 feet high. The carving on two of the 
faces of this entablature is greatly obliterated. On the other two 
we have bas-reliefs, one of which represents the Virgin Mother and 


230 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


The shrine of St. Machutus, Machaldus, Macfield, Mac- 
hilla, Magharde, or Maughold, as he is variously styled, 
who was buried here, was held in great repute down to the 
period of the Reformation ; and here we find a sanctuary 
was established in very early times. The legend of him is, 
.that originally having been captain of a band of Kerns, or 
Irish freebooters, he was converted to the Christian faith 
by the great apostle of Ireland, St. Patrick. Desirous of 
withdrawing from the scenes of his former lawlessness, he 
is said to have embarked in a frail boat made of wicker¬ 
work and covered wfith hides, and committing himself to 
the guidance of the Almighty, he was driven by the winds 
and tides, and at length cast ashore on the Isle of Man at 
the headland which still bears his name. The severity of 
religious discipline to which he subsequently subjected 
himself spread his fame for sanctity far and wide; and 
Manx tradition records that St. Bridget*, the famous nun, 
came hither to receive the veil of perpetual virginity from 
his hands, and that on the death of Romulus he w r as by 
universal consent elected to the bishopric of the Isle. To 
him, as before has been mentioned, we owe the present 
division of the isle into seventeen parishes. 

On the north-eastern side of that magnificent headland 
which forms the southern limit of Ramsey bay, is a little 
spring bursting out from the chinks of the uptilted and 
twisted gray schists. Immediately aboVe rises the pile of 

Child, and the other the Crucifixion. Under the latter is a shield 
bearing the arms of Man after the Scottish conquest; under the 
former a shield charged with a rose contained in a garter or circle. 

* The Irish dispute the truth of this legend, affirming that it was 
from St. Patrick that Bridget received the veil. See supra , p. 21. 
Sacheverell however says, “ In this retirement it was that St. Bridget, 
one of the tutelar saints of Ireland, came to receive the veil of vir¬ 
ginity from his hand, as her nephew Cogitosus, who WTote her life, 
informs us. 


t 

ST. MAUGHOLD'’S WELL. 231 

rock, which fetching up with a fine sweep from the valley 
extending between Port-le-Voillen and Port Mooar, sinks 
down again precipitously nearly 500* feet into the salt 
water. Veins of iron stone t and masses of quartz rock 
interposed in the schists, give a variegated appearance to 
the north-eastern angle of the precipice, with red and 
white streaks upon a gray ground. Round about the 
spring a soft green sward clothes a few roods of ground, 
and for a few yards, where it trickles in its overflowings 
adown the face of the steep, a crop of rushes luxuriates. 
Where the spring gushes forth the rock has been hollowed 
into a small basin, and over it has been erected a simple 
shed of rough unhewn blocks of the rock immediately at 
hand. Hither the Saint is said to have resorted; nor is it 
altogether improbable that nearly fourteen hundred years 
ago at this very font he administered the baptismal rite. 
Certainly it was for many ages in great repute for its medi¬ 
cinal properties, and was resorted to on account of its sanc¬ 
tity by crowds of pilgrims from all parts. Nor is it yet 
forgotten. The first Sunday in the month of August calls 
forth the neighbourhood to their annual visit to the well, 
and bottles of the water are there and then procured, 
carried away to the homes of each, and preserved for any 
emergency with scrupulous care. 

The peculiar sanctity of the church of St. Maughold and 
its immediate precincts has just been alluded to. There is 
a legend detailed in the f Chronicles of Man/ which, whilst 
it serves to bear out this remark, is such an amusing in¬ 
stance of the honest credulity of the Rushen Cistercians, 
that it seems worth while to give it almost in extenso . 

* The height of Maughold Head, as determined barometrically by 
Dr. Berger, is 475 feet. 

t For an account of the iron mines of Maughold, see Appen¬ 
dix, K. 


232 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Somerlcd Jarl ofArgylc had taken up arms againstGodred 
Olavcson. A sea-battle was fought between them on the 
eve of the Epiphany (1156), with such doubtful success to 
either, that the next morning they came to a compromise 
to divide between them the sovereignty of the Isles. Under 
this compromise Somerlcd acquired all the Isles, excepting 
Man, south of the point of Ardnamurchan. From that 
period the sovereignty of the Isles ceased to be vested in 
one single person. 

In the year 1158 Somerlcd again with a fleet of fifty-three 
ships came to Man, where encountering Godrcd, he de¬ 
feated that prince, who then fled to the court of Norway to 
crave assistance. 

On the approach of Somerlcd to the Isle the second 
time, the Manx people conveyed their money and valuables 
to the sanctuary of St. Maughold's Church, in hopes, says 
the Chronicler, that the veneration due to St. Machutus, 
added to the sanctity of the place, would secure every thing 
within its precincts. After the battle, in which he was 
victorious, the fleet of Somerlcd lay at Ramsey, and one of 
his captains, Gil Colum, made a proposal to surprise the 
church of St. Maughold, and at least drive off the cattle 
which were feeding around the churchyard. With much 
reluctance Somerlcd consented, pronouncing at the same 
time these words; “Let the affair rest between thee and 
St. Machutus ; let me and my troops be innocent; we claim 
no share in thy sacrilegious booty." Gil Colum laid his 
plans accordingly, arranging with his three sons to effect 
the surprise at daybreak of the following morning; but as 
he lay asleep in his tent at dead of night, St. Machutus 
appeared to him arrayed in white linen and holding a pas¬ 
toral staff in his hand, with which he thrice struck him in 
the heart. Awaking in great terror of mind, he sent for 
the priests of the church to receive his confession, but they 


CORNA CREEK. 


233 


had no words of comfort for the dying wretch. One of 
them even proceeded to pray that St. Machutus would never 
withdraw his hand till he had made an end of the impious 
man, and immediately he was attacked by a swarm of filthy, 
monstrous flies, and about six in the morning expired in 
great misery and torture. Somerled and his whole host 
were struck with such dismay upon the death of this man, 
that as soon as the tide floated their ships they weighed 
anchor, and with precipitancy returned home. 

The road leading from Maughold to Laxey is wild in the 
extreme. There are however two lovely valleys running 
down to the sea, the one terminating in Coma Creek, or, 
as it is sometimes called, Kennay ; the other is that through 
which the Dhoon river delivers its waters. This river, or 
rather burn, takes its rise in a granitic boss, which stretches 
out from the headland between Corna Creek and the mouth 
of the Dhoon, on an estate known by the name of the Ba¬ 
rony, up inland for a mile and a half towards Snaefell. 
The granite is of a much more compact character than that 
on South Barrule, approaching more to the condition of a 
gray syenite, small particles of hornblende being substi¬ 
tuted for the flakes of mica which appear in the granite of 
the southern district of the island. It has not hitherto 
been worked, but is evidently far more available than the 
more inland mass on South Barrule, and its character much 
more durable. It ought at least to be used on the roads 
of the north-east side of the island, instead of the soft clay 
schist which is too frequently laid upon them. 

In passing down the hill into the Laxey Valley, on the 
right-hand side, at the turn of the road, is a cairn which it 
has been asserted is the resting-place of the ancient war¬ 
rior King Orry, to whom the island is indebted for the in¬ 
stitution of the House of Keys. A few years back the 
owner of the property on which it stands not having the 


234 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


fear of fairy or phynydorree before bis eyes, but seeing tbe 
stones lying convenient for a fence be was busy on, set to 
work to remove some of the lesser from the central heap of 
apparent rubbish in which they were fixed ; in doing this 
he discovered a rude dome-shaped vault, in the centre of 
which was a kistvaen composed of two large slabs of schist, 
placed parallel to each other in a direction nearly east and 
west, but inclining towards each other above, at the extre¬ 
mities of which seem originally to have been placed verti¬ 
cally thin slabs of the same rock which had been broken. 
Inside were a few brittle bones and teeth of a horse, and 
here the search was discontinued. The discovery of the 
remains of the horse is so rare in barrows which can be 
determined of the date of the ancient Britons, that in the 
absence of other evidence it may be safe to attribute this at 
Laxey to an early period of the possession of the island 
by the Northmen. This kistvaen is evidently but one of 
a number collected at the spot, and further careful research 
would probably be attended with most interesting results. 

As we descend the hill a few hundred yards further and 
before entering the village, the position of a patch of the 
drift-gravel platform through which the road has been cut 
should attract notice, as it is one of the few links along 
the eastern coast which connects the great expanse of that 
series in the north of the Isle with the gravel, sands and 
clay of the same age in the south. 

Laxey valley and village, Laxi baye and toume , as the 
old chronicler Speed has it, is sufficiently beautiful to merit 
a special visit to itself. There is also a bustle about the 
place caused by the hands employed in the neighbouring 
mines and the paper-mill, which comes very unexpectedly 
upon us whether we journey through it northward or 
southward. So deep in fact is the glen, so precipitous the 
mountain sides which hedge it in, that were it not for the 



LAXEY. 


235 


many wreaths of smoke which come curling up out of this 
great natural cavity, even within a very short distance, we 
should hardly suspect that we were near the clustered ha¬ 
bitations of men. The ascent of Snaefcll may be very 
well accomplished in this direction, as has before been 
noticed; and on the road a mile and a half up the valley 
we pass the entrance to the mines, from which very large 
and valuable shipments of copper, lead and zinc have been 
and continue to be effected. The village of Laxey is situ¬ 
ated in the parish of Lonan, and by taking the left-hand 
road which turns up by the school-house near the wooden 
bridge a mile up the stream, we shall soon reach the old 
parish church, where there are to be seen two Runic crosses 
in excellent preservation and well worth study. One of them 
stands in the church-yard on the south side of the church, 
the other on a mound between forty and fifty yards from 
the church on the north side. 

We turn again into the Douglas road about a mile from 
Laxey; and a mile still further brings us to a small circle 
of twelve stones on the southern side of a little ravine, one 
of which, six feet high, is remarkable as being cloven from 
top to bottom, and hence it is presumed that the name 
cloven-stones which has been given to the spot originated. 
It has however been conjectured that the word cloven is a 
corruption of clovan , and this again from Kirk Lovan* or 
Lomanf, the ancient name of the parish. The tradition 
of the spot is that a Welsh prince was here slain in an in¬ 
vasion of the island, and that these stones mark the place 

* In the patent given to William Earl of Derby in the seventh 
year of the reign of James I., we read the name of this parish Kirk 
Lovan. 

t St. Lomanus, son of Tygrida, one of the three holy sisters of St. 
Patrick, is said by tradition to have succeeded St. Maughold in the 
bishopric. See Sacheverell’s Account of the Isle of Man, page 120. 


236 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


of his interment. Mr. Feltham mentions the discovery in 
the centre of the circle of a stone sepulchral chest or kist- 
vaen; and in the view which he has given of it as existing 
at the time of his visit, there is the clear indication of a 
coved roof of stones forming an arched vault in the centre 
of the mound. 

We pass onward, and the mountains and valleys of the 
south side of the isle open gradually upon our view. We 
leave Clay Head on our left-hand, forming the southern limit 
of Laxey Bay. Here is Growdale, with its quiet sheep- 
walks and gently purling burn. Crossing White Bridge 
and ascending the opposite slope, Onchan comes into view, 
with the richly-wooded grounds of Bamahague. We have 
the choice of two roads into Douglas, both of them afford¬ 
ing most happy views of its bay; and though we have 
looked upon many a fair scene of valley and fell, water and 
wood, in journeying round the Isle, still does this arrogate 
to itself in each respect those feelings of entire satisfaction 
which it awoke when first it was spread before our eyes. 


A SUMMARY. 


237 


CHAPTER XV. 

Lithological character of the Isle of Man.—Granite Bubbles.—Great 
extent of schistose formations.—The Isle of Man existing as such 
in the Devonian period.—No disturbance between the Old Red 
conglomerate and Carboniferous limestone.—The lower and up¬ 
per Limestone series.—Eruption of Trap rocks and interpola¬ 
tion in Carboniferous beds.—Great gap between the Carbonife¬ 
rous and Glacial deposits.—The Glacial epoch.—Subsidence and 
emergence of the Island.—Its present condition. 

Considering the Isle of Man lithologically, it may be 
stated as consisting to the amount of three-fourths of it of 
a series of schists mantling apparently round bosses of 
granite, these granitic domes or nuclei being arranged in a 
rather irregular curved line running in a general direction 
from S.W. to N.E. There is no appearance of the granite 
having been pushed up in a solid state through the schists, 
nor again of its having overflowed the surface* in the 
manner of basaltic rocks; but it seems to have risen up in 
a semifluid condition, in gigantic bubbles (if we may so 
speak) of molten matter, forcing itself in amongst the 
schists wherever they gave way. 

These granitic bosses appear at the surface in two locali¬ 
ties, in consequence most probably of the schists which 
enveloped them having suffered denudation. 

Both these localities are on the south-eastern side of 
the great range of mountains which divide the island, the 
one near the head of the Dhoon river betwixt Laxey and 

* I believe that in the streamlet near the Foxdale mines, where 
the granite appears to overlie the schist, it is simply a case of intru¬ 
sion along the line of contact. 


238 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


Ramsey *, and the other on the eastern side of South 
Barrule, on the road between Castletown and St.John's 
Yalef. The schists in contact with the granite have been 
completely metamorphosed, and as we recede from these 
nuclei, pass regularly through the stages of a gneissose 
rock and mica-schist into clay and grauwacke-schist. Of 
the geological age of the schists we have no good criterion, 
the few undetermined fucoids or corallines in the newer 
portion being insufficient guides; they are probably, as far 
as developed, lower Silurian. Their texture is, generally 
speaking, softer than the Cambrian or Snowdonian rocks, 
and the slaty cleavage (if it exist at all) seems very im¬ 
perfectly developed. 

There is little reason to doubt that these schists were 
deposited in a deep sea. At Spanish Head, where they are 
nearly horizontal, we have seen that they are more than 
300 feet in vertical thickness J, of a peculiar fibrous kind, 
not apparently metamorphosed, and yet giving not a trace 
of organized life, and these rocks form but a small portion 
of the entire series. Now, as every particle of these sedi¬ 
mentary rocks must have been derived from the destruc¬ 
tion and degradation of pre-existing igneous rocks (ex¬ 
cepting of course such as may be attributed to animal 
secretions from the waters of the primaeval ocean), we must 
soon come to the conclusion that an enormous period was 
requisite for the aqueous deposition of the schistose series 
alone. Where the continent or land was, the degradation 
of which furnished the materials for this series, is entirely 
a matter of speculation. 

It is evident however that there was an elevation of the 

* See the last chapter, p. 233, and Plate I. 

t See Chapter XII. p. 176, and Plate I., general section across 
the island. 

X See Chapter XI. supra, p. 147. 


PALAEOZOIC PERIOD. 


239 


Consolidated sea-bottom of the Silurian age at the com¬ 
mencement of the middle paleozoic period, as the old red 
sandstone and conglomerate of the island rest on the up¬ 
turned edges of the older schists. 

Of the existence of some portion also of these schists 
above the level of the sea, so as to form an island, or series of 
islands, at the time of the Old Red Sandstone formation, we 
have seen evidence at several points along the edge of the 
southern basin of the island, the conglomerate occurring as 
a mass of small white quartz pebbles in a carbonaceous paste 
only a few feet in thickness *, though further down towards 
the centre of the basin it attains a thickness of from fifty 
to sixty feet, and in all cases is unconformable to the schists, 
though passing conformably upwards into the dark lime¬ 
stones and shales; and it is evident that whatever cause 
elevated the schists, throwing them off to the S.E. by S. 
and N.W. by N. of the central ridge, has given to the island 
its general form. 

Hitherto no boulders of the central granite have been 
found in the old red conglomerate, which is negative evi¬ 
dence against the hypothesis of its having at that time been 
brought to the surface. Still it may have been (and most 
probably was) the elevating agent, rising up in its charac¬ 
teristic dome shape, and metamorphosing the schists by its 
molten contact and subsequent cooling. Tie secondary 
elevations on the island seem due to an outburst of por¬ 
phyries at a subsequent periodf- 

There is no evidence of any disturbance having taken 
place between the deposit of the old red sandstone and 
the mountain limestone; the former passes into the latter 
with a most easy gradation by an abstraction of the larger 

* See Chapter V. supra, p. 44. 

t As in the case at Rock Mount: see general section across the 
Island, Plate I. 


240 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


quartz pebbles, and the substitution of, first, a brown are¬ 
naceous, and then of a dark calcareous matrix for the fer¬ 
ruginous paste of the lower portion. 

The fossils too of the carboniferous series set on (so to 
speak) before the quartz pebbles of the old red conglo¬ 
merate have ceased. This we have seen to be the case in 
the south of the island at least, where alone the passage 
can be regularly observed*. 

In the neighbourhood of Peel, which is the only other 
locality where the old red sandstone is discovered, the 
beds are of an increased thickness, attaining about 300 
feet, and are in the character chiefly of a workable sand¬ 
stone. Here the overlying limestone is not seen, having 
in fact been denuded from the elevated beds ; but there is 
no doubt of its position not far out at sea, as indicated in 
the geological section across the island f, as boulders of it 
occur plentifully along the shore, and have been collected 
at various times for burning into lime. There appears to 
have been a small patch of it also at one time on the edge 
of the cliff near Craig Mallin, which has been entirely con¬ 
verted into lime, in the kilns of which the ruins still exist. 
The old red sandstone in this locality, just under the pre¬ 
sumed position of the limestone, is extremely calcareous, 
and effervesces largely with acids, yet contains its own 
characteristic fossils, as, for instance, Favosites polymorpha. 

The carboniferous series, as developed in the south of 
the island, is divided into two portions in its lowest mem¬ 
bers; it consists of thick beds of dark limestone, alter¬ 
nating with thin bands of shale; the lifts of limestone 
not being equally calcareous, or alike convertible into lime 
when burnt, and it is remarkable that the most fossiliferous 
are the least suited to that end. 


* See p. 44, supra. 


t See Plate I. 


UPPER LIMESTONE BEDS. 


241 


On a comparison of the fossils of this division with those 
of the carboniferous series in other parts of the British 
Isles, we find them remarkably agreeing with the lower 
Northumbrian type, or still more closely with the series 
developed in the neighbourhood of Hook Point in the 
south of Ireland; they may very well be compared also 
with the Kendal beds. Scarlet, the western horn of Castle¬ 
town Bay, is however still alone in its glory of possessing 
the beautiful fossil which was first noticed there, the Go- 
niatites Henslowii *, of which the original is in the Wood- 
wardian Museum at Cambridge. 

The upper division of the carboniferous series, as seen 
in the south of the island, indicates, by its different and 
extremely abundant fauna, that a change took place in the 
physical condition of the basin in which the deposit took 
place, probably in consequence either of the filling up or 
elevation of the then sea-bottom. 

The black carbonaceous mud which previously was depo¬ 
sited in this area seems not to have been favourable to 
organized existence, or the sea may have been too deep for 
the more abundant species of the lower scar limestone. 
Certain it is that the two series of dark and light-coloured 
limestone differ as much in their contained fauna as in 
their lithological appearance. They have comparatively 
few species in common, and those which are common are 
mostly such as have a great vertical range. 

The light-coloured limestones again seem separately di¬ 
visible into (so to speak) zones of life; and thus we see, 
even within the very limited area of this basin, that, as in 
the present day, so also in the palaeozoic period, there were 
certain ranges of depth within which each animated species 
was confined, and that whenever, from any cause the sea- 
* Named in the Dean of Westminster’s Bridgewater Treatise 
Ammonites Henslowii. 

M 



242 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


bottom was elevated or depressed, certain species died out, 
and others came in to take their place*. 

There were other subsequent changes in the physical 
condition of this area within the carboniferous period of a 
still more remarkable nature. * A violent convulsion (which 
may be traced in its effects more particularly along a line 
running from the Stack of Scarlet through Poolvash) 
crumpled up the strata into a series of folds f, and formed 
a number of troughs or smaller basins for the reception of 
a new and peculiar deposit. There was at first a large 
outpouring of trap, which, where it has flowed over the 
limestone, has greatly metamorphosed it; in some cases 
indeed transforming it into pure dolomite. Whilst, on the 
one hand, the more violent eruption seems to have been 
but of short continuance, it is evident also that the vent 
(wherever it might be) was kept open, and emitted for a 
lengthened period volcanic ash, which was carried by the 
currents and deposited quietly in different parts of this 
area. 

We have seen indications indeed that the deposit went 
on so quietly, or was poured out only at such intervals, as 
not very greatly to interfere with the development of 
organized life J. We find fossils imbedded as regularly in 
the beds of volcanic ash as in the limestone beds. We 
find also a very interesting local deposit of black carbona¬ 
ceous mud (very similar to that forming the earlier shales 
of the basin) going on at the same time, and mingled with 
the volcanic products, the prevalence of one or other in 
any particular locality depending, it would seem, on the 
relative distance of that locality from the sources of the 
respective ingredients there deposited. We may easily 

* See List of Carboniferous Fossils, Appendix Q. 

t See Plate VII. sections 2 and 3. 

% See Chap. X. supra, p. 129. 


POSIDONIAN SCHIST. 


243 


explain the appearances, by supposing a river whose waters 
were charged with a carbonaceous silt, having its embou¬ 
chure in the neighbourhood, and thus mixing its contents 
with the quiet outpouring of a subaqueous volcanic vent 
at no great distance. At one period, indeed, the carbona¬ 
ceous deposit seems to have entirely prevailed, perhaps the 
volcanic action entirely ceased, gathering strength for a 
subsequent eruption. The bed then formed has its own 
lithological character and fossils. It is the Posidonian schist 
or black Poolvash marble so largely used for economic pur¬ 
poses*. 

I have termed it Posidonian schist, from the circum¬ 
stance of its containing the Posidonia in great abundance, 
and as its characteristic fossil. But it is also otherwise re¬ 
markable. It contains, on the one hand, Favosites Goth - 
landica, hardly hitherto considered a carboniferous fossil; 
and on the other hand, we find in it the first and only 
traces of coal-plants met with on the island. I have in 
my possession a beautiful cone of Lepidostrobus ornatus. 

Like all the other shale beds, this abounds in sulphupet 
of iron, and in one particular layer the contained fossils 
have become converted into that mineral: they are ex¬ 
quisitely beautiful, and give us the idea that they are some 
of nature’s electrotypes. Every line and every curve of 
the original has been preserved with the closest exactness, 
as we perceive by a comparison with the corresponding 
species in the limestone beds. And as the surface of many 
of them presents the appearance of burnished copper coins, 
the illusion is complete. 

This quiet and regular deposit was afterwards suddenly 
interrupted. The volcanic action was again exhibited with 
renewed violence, as at the first. The lower beds of the 
first eruption, together with the beds of volcanic ash, of 
* See Chap. X. supra, p. 130. 

m 2 


244 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


mixed trappsean ash and calcareous deposits, and Posido- 
nian schists, were contorted, broken up, reduced to a frag¬ 
mentary condition and enveloped in the outpoured deposits. 
There results a trap-breccia, in which the fragments of the 
older beds seem to have been considerably influenced by 
heat. The Posidonian schist has become cherty, the lime¬ 
stone highly crystalline, and in some cases hardly di¬ 
stinguishable from amygdaloid. 

It is an extremely interesting question, as to whether 
the trap-dykes which stretch across several portions of this 
basin in a direction a little to the south of east and north 
of west, were or were not the accompaniments of this erup¬ 
tion. In the only spot (Poolvash Bay) where they can be 
seen in connection with it, they seem to merge into the 
breccia, and the impression consequently is that it was the 
overflow of the dykes which assisted in forming that breccia, 
and that the convulsion and contortion of the inferior beds 
was contemporaneous with the formation of the cracks from 
which the trap poured forth. There is good evidence to show 
that whenever the trap did flow forth, forming the dykes, 
it did not merely find vent through pre-existing cracks, 
but that the eruption also was the cause of those cracks 
which it tilled; and it seems to have forced itself in also 
between the beds of conglomerate and the tough superior 
limestone. Should any clear evidence hereafter arise 
showing that the trap-dykes are posterior to the trap- 
breccia, it must still be impossible to fix their exact date, 
as they may range through the whole of the mesozoic or 
secondary, and a large portion of the kainozoic or tertiary 
periods; the next deposits superior to the trap-breccia 
being those of the pleistocene formation. 

In this interval however must at any rate be fixed the 
protrusion of those porphyritic masses which, as we before 
said, seem to have formed the secondary elevations on the 


AGE OF PORPHYRIES. 


245 


island, and perhaps contributed a lift to the central chain. 
This period seems to be fixed in the following manner. 
If we examine (as an instance) the ridge running from 
Rock Mount* near St. John's towards Cronk Urley, at both 
which places the porphyry is discovered, we shall find that 
it was the elevation of this ridge which gave the high angle 
to the old red sandstone of Peel (to which also the lime¬ 
stone is conformable). But the pleistocene formation at 
Peel appears to rest quietly on the up-turned edges of the 
old red sandstone. 

Again, the great fault running from Perwick Bay 
through Port St. Mary, Strandhall and Athol Bridge, in a 
direction nearly N.E. by N., cutting off at once all the 
carboniferous series to the N.W. of this line, seems closely 
connected with these porphyries, which are developed 
almost continuously along the fault. Since this fault took 
place a great denuding force has swept over the island, 
and has planed down both sides of the fault to the same 
level, and the boulder-clay formation lies evidently undis¬ 
turbed continuously across the line of disturbance f. 
And we have similar evidence on Langness, at Coshnaha- 
win, and the whole way to Sariton Head. 

It seems not unlikely that the same denuding action 
which, as we have just stated, swept away so large a portion 
of the carboniferous series in the southern basin, reducing 
to the same level the beds on each side of the fault, laid 
bare the granitic boss on the eastern side of South Barrule, 
for the boulders of that granite appear in the boulder clay, 
but not in any previous formation. 

We thus arrive at the conclusion, that, if we except the 
low extended area of the tertiary formation in the north of 

* See Plate I. General section across the Island. 

f See Chap. XI. p. 143, supra, and Plate VII., section 1, with 
comparison of Plates II. and III. 


245 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


the island, its present physical appearance was attained in 
great part in the secondary and earlier tertiary periods. 
Whether in the entire interval between the carboniferous 
and glacial deposits it was above the waters of the sea, and 
therefore not receiving on its surface the beds of the Per¬ 
mian, Triassic, Liassic, Oolitic and Cretaceous series, or 
whether after having received some or all, and having been 
elevated above the sea-level it was denuded of all of them 
in succession down to the Carboniferous, and including a 
portion of it, is quite uncertain. It is evident that either 
may have been the case, yet neither of these views is without 
its difficulties*. 

The period of the boulder-clay formation on the island 
manifestly commenced with a state of atmospheric con¬ 
ditions very different to that existing in the carboniferous 
epoch or those now existing. 

Those conditions seem to belong to a severe climate+. 
It appears impossible to exclude the agency of ice in the 
greater part of that formation, though how far this may 
have been aided in its effects by extraordinary currents and 
waves of translation, originated perhaps by the upheaval 
of mountain-chains or extensive tracts of land above the 
ocean, is still a question sub judice. The facts bearing 
upon the question have presented themselves in the course 
of our journeys, and I am not without hope that the Isle 
of Man itself may be found hereafter to afford the key to 
the unlocking this mystery. 

Very distinct evidence, as we have seen, is presented in 
the south of the island, that vast masses of clay, sand, 
gravel and fragments of rocks must have been forced along 
by powerful currents in definite directions. Underneath 

* The former hypothesis would be most consistent with the views 
which I have expressed at p. 118, Chap. IX. supra , 

t See list of Pleistocene fossils, Appendix R» 


THE BOULDER DEPOSIT. 


247 


the boulder-clay formation there, the rocks of the limestone 
series are grooved and scratched in a remarkable manner. 
The lines are not always continuous, but seem struck out 
as if by some sharp body brought in contact, suddenly 
pushed forward and then elevated again*. The fragments 
of rock also in the boulder-clay formation are themselves 
scratched and grooved, and when they can be determined 
as belonging to the island not much rounded. Indeed 
there is every indication that they were not rolled but 
pushed along whilst held tight in some matrix; and what 
matrix supplying all the requisite conditions can we so 
readily conjecture as ice ? The effects of that agent in the 
present day on the shores of our Arctic and Subarctic seas 
and rivers t so closely correspond with the appearances 
presented to the geological inquirer as belonging to the 
period of the boulder clay or pleistocene formation J, that 
we can hardly resist the argument for the identity of the 
agency in both cases. 

The lower portion of the boulder deposit is the more loamy. 
Perhaps this may argue that it was originated in a muddy 
and deep sea, and the included fossils point to the same 
hypothesis. Yet the ploughing-up by icebergs of a sea- 
bottom, consisting of limestones and shales, tilted so as to 
present a series of basset edges to the drifting currents, 
must have contributed largely to the materials of this for¬ 
mation. And it has been noticed, as remarkably confirma¬ 
tory of this view, that the boulder clay to the leeward of 
any particular rock relatively to the drifting current has 
the predominant colour and mineral contents of that rock; 
to the leeward for instance of the basset edge of the old 
red sandstone it has a reddish tinge, of the limestone and 
shales a dark dingy blue. 

* See Chap. IX. p. 115, supra. 

t As in the instance adduced, p. 117, supra. 

% See p. 113, supra. 


248 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


It will readily be conceded, that in such a climate and in¬ 
sular locality, the loftier mountains might generate glaciers, 
bringing down large accumulations of detrital matter, with 
angular and scratched fragments of rocks. As yet how¬ 
ever no distinct evidence has presented itself of such glaciers 
having existed on the Isle of Man. The small elevation 
and extent of its mountains above the then sea-level would 
by some perhaps be considered hardly favourable to their 
development, though modern researches have shown that in 
islands within the arctic regions glaciers descend even to 
the sea-level*. But the icy waves (especially if aided by 
storms) must have acted powerfully in the degradation of 
the shales, whilst masses of gravel and sand frozen into 
coast-ice would be carried onwards by the currents, which 
hurried through the different channels, and being arrested 
in their course by any more elevated object, would become 
packed, and form heaps of gravel, sand and clay on the de¬ 
liquescence of the ice. 

The formation of long ellipsoidal hillocks, whose major 
axis (so to speak) is in the direction of the general drifting 
current (as shown by the subjacent scratched rocks), is a 
very remarkable fact, and has been well-studied in the 
south of the island ; whether they were so formed originally 
beneath the sea, or have attained the shape through the 
action of currents at a period of gradual elevation, it may 
not at present be safe to say. That after a long continu¬ 
ance of depression there was for some time again a gradual 
elevation of the sea-bottom seems pretty clear, and that the 
sea itself subsequently became of a less muddy character f 
is also evident; the upper portion of the boulder deposit 

* See f Recherches sur les Glaciers, les Glaces Flotantes, les 
Depots Erratiques, &c./ by Mons. Jules Granges. Paris, 1846. 
See also p. 27, supra. m 

t See the Memoir of Professor E. Forbes in the first volume of 
the Geological Survey of Great Britain, pp. 383 and 385, 


GRANITE BOULDERS. 


249 


consisting largely of rolled pebbles, gravel and sand, gene¬ 
rally in waved layers, with very little clay. The contained 
rocks too in the upper portion, as we have seen, are more 
generally foreign than in the lower. We should be pre¬ 
pared to expect this, as presuming the boulder-clay series 
at the commencement of its formation to have been origi¬ 
nated in the manner we have described, in at first a gra¬ 
dually deepening sea and without any extraordinary action 
of denuding waves ; it would follow, that after a time, when 
the sea-bottom became well-covered by this deposit, the 
further degradation of the inferior rocks by the ploughing 
action of the icebergs would cease. 

In speaking of the commencement of the boulder-clay 
formation, as presenting to us no problems requiring 
necessarily a violent diluvial action for its solution, it is 
not intended that no such action existed at any period of 
the deposit. On the contrary, there are phenomena which 
point to the probability at least, that enormous waves with 
vast carrying force must have swept over the surface of the 
island at a later period of the formation. The general 
appearance of its eastern, as compared with its western 
side, described by Swedish naturalists under the term 
stoss seite or weathered side, indicates in some measure that 
fact, and also the direction of such action. But the 
evidence which tends most powerfully to the establishment 
of such a view, is to be read in the phsenomena presented 
to us on the western side of South Barrule. We have 
noticed there*, on its western side, and even within a hun¬ 
dred feet of its summit, large boulders of the same granite 
which is developed on its eastern side more than 600 feet 
below the summit. No simple carrying action of icebergs 
can have transported these blocks up the very steep eastern 

* See Chap. XII. p. 177, supra. 

m 5 


250 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


face of the mountain and so over to the other side, but we 
can imagine the extraordinary action of great waves acting 
on masses of ice charged with these granitic blocks, and 
bearing them to a considerable elevation above the then 
sea-level. We must either grant this, or suppose an eleva¬ 
tion of the mountain chain to the westward of the granitic 
boss since the deposit of the blocks on the top and western 
side of South Barrule, but of such elevation no independent 
evidence has been as yet discovered. 

There is some reason, as I said, for concluding a gradual 
elevation again of the island towards the close of the 
boulder-clay deposit, and that the singular low rounded 
hills of that formation, which are observable both in the 
south of the island, and in the north on a line from Point 
Cranstal to Blue Head, are due to the beating about of the 
waves and the action of currents at such period. It ap¬ 
pears however that when this gradual elevation had pro¬ 
ceeded to some extent, there was a long-continued rest, 
during which the great platform of drift-gravel was de¬ 
posited, in part formed by the degradation of the upraised 
masses of the previous boulder-clay deposit. In this drift 
there is little or no clay; coarse sands alternate with beds 
of gravel, and occasionally there are some large foreign 
boulders in it, especially on the surface. 

In some parts of the island (but more especially on the 
north-western coast between Peel and Kirk Michael) there 
are appearances as if the boulder clay had been worn down 
and its surface swept clean before the deposit of the drift- 
gravel was formed upon it. In other cases the gravel has 
filled up hollows in the boulder clay, not in horizontal 
layers, but in layers which are concentric with the bound¬ 
ing surfaces of these depressions, indicating a shallow sea. 

On the surface of this drift-gravel, as we have just 
noticed, we often fall in with large boulders, sometimes 




I)RIFT-GRAVEL. 


251 


single, at other times several of them together. They are 
also occasionally met with on the tops of the low hills of the 
boulder deposit, and on the eastern slopes of the moun¬ 
tains : they have been most probably dropped on the 
melting of drift-ice which has grounded. 

The elevating process seems again to have set on after 
a time, and during that elevation there was considerable 
denudation of the drift-gravel. The great depression now 
occupied by the Curragh in the north of the island, seems 
to have been formed at this period; the valleys of St. John, 
Baldwin and Spring Valley in the centre, and the long 
valleys in the south, are evidently coeval and originated by 
like causes. They have assumed their present form, as is very 
readily perceived, in consequence of the particular arrange¬ 
ment of the subjacent palaeozoic rocks, forming natural 
breakwaters in particular localities, and preventing the 
removal of the gravel by the beating of the waves at the 
period of elevation. In the unprotected places, the denu¬ 
dation has proceeded down to the boulder clay, which, from 
being in its lower portion of a rather tougher texture, has 
resisted the denuding action longer, though in some in¬ 
stances the denudation has proceeded to the surface of the 
older rocks. 

It will perhaps be always impossible to determine 
the extent to which the elevation of the sea-bottom con¬ 
tinued. 

My own conviction is, that the greater portion of the 
area now occupied by the Irish Sea became dry land, and 
formed extensive plains occupied by many freshwater lakes. 
There is no reasonable ground for doubting that the Isle 
of Man became connected by such means with England, 
Scotland and Ireland. Over these plains roamed the stately 
Megaceros, and in these lakes he was frequently mired*. 

* See Chap. VII. supra, p. 81. 


252 


THE ISLE OF MAN. 


At the same time England would be united with the 
continent of Europe, and opportunity would be given for 
the emigration into the British Isles of the various tribes 
of animals which appear to have inhabited them at this 
period. Professor E. Forbes has most elaborately worked 
out the same result from considerations of the flora of the 
British Isles, as compared with foreign types*. 

What ages may have elapsed with such a condition of 
land and water in this portion of the northern hemisphere ! 
The inland lakes became filled up with alluvium and peat 
by the ordinary and slow operations which we see now 
going on, and vast forests of oak, pine, ash and birch grew 
up and covered the surface of the country. 

We have however further evidence that a depression of 
this area again took place. The forests were overthrown 
perhaps by the incursion of the sea, and covered by marine 
deposits. The different races of animals then existing 
were perhaps in part destroyed, the remainder betook 
themselves to the higher grounds and the mountains, and 
became isolated. 

Perhaps amongst them the Megaceros Hibernicus may 
be included, though we have not as yet any distinct evi¬ 
dence of his existence after the growth of the great forests. 
Further immigration from the continent of Europe was 
then stopped. 

But again the elevatory process commenced, a process 
which may be slowly carried on up to the present time. 
The submerged forests have again in part re-appeared 
above the waves of the sea. The Curragh and the lakes it 
contained, as also those in the south of the island of which 
we have historical records, have been one after the other 
drained; land has been reclaimed from the sea in the open- 

* See his valuable paper on the Flora of the Isle of Man, Appen¬ 
dix S. 


ATMOSPHERIC AGENTS. 


253 


ings of some of the alluvial valleys, though the work of 
destruction still proceeds, aided by the ordinary atmo¬ 
spheric operations of wind, rain and frost at more exposed 
portions of the tertiary formation, where it presents cliffs 
to the action of the breakers*. 

* For a report of the Meteorology of the Island, see Appendix, 
Note T. 




APPENDIX. 


A. Page 1. 

The names which have been given at different times to this 
navel of the Irish Sea, as Gildas calls it, are as various as the 
methods of spelling that under which it is now generally known. 
The following notice in Camden is interesting:—“ More north¬ 
ward lieth that Mona whereof Caesar maketh mention, in the 
mids of the cut, as he saith, betwen Britain and Ireland. 
Ptolemee termeth it Moneda, as one would say Mon-eitha, that 
is, if I maybe allowed to conjecture, the more remote Mona, to 
put a difference between it and the other Mona, i. e. Anglesey. 
Plinie Monabia, Orosius Menavia, and Bede Menavia Secunda, 
i. e. Second Menavia, where he termeth Mona or Anglesey 
Menavia Prior, i. e. former Menavia, and calleth them both 
islands of the Britons, in which writers, notwithstanding, it is 
read amisse, Menavia. Ninius, who also goeth abroad under 
the name Gildas, nameth it Eubonia and Manau, the Britons 
Menow, the inhabitants Manning, and we Englishmen the 
yle of Man.”—Folio Edition, Scotland, p. 203, letter E. 

The translator of ‘ Polydore Vergil 5 says, “ There are 
manie iles adjacent to Britayne, and two of indifferent fame,— 
the one called the Isle of Wighte beinge against the south 
baneke of England; the other ilond, beinge somewhat famous, 
is the Isle of Mone, or Man, by the exchaunge of one letter, 
which one the north side enclineth toward Scotlande, south¬ 
eastward towards Englond, on the weste towards Irelonde. 
In olde time, whensoever there appeared decrease or ebhe in 



256 


APPENDIX A. 


the ocean, it was divided with so small a sea, and was so near 
with the lande, that a man might have gone thereunto without 
shippinge, which thinge (as Cornelius Tacitus recordethe) was 
donne of the Romaines. There are some which dare affirme 
that yt is the He of Mone which men call Anglesea, beinge 
nearer Walles.” 

The inhabitants themselves call the island Mannin or Elian 
Vannin (Isle of Mann). Amongst the derivations of the name 
we may note the ingenious one of Bishop Wilson, who says, 
“ The Isle of Man very probably had the name it goes by now 
from the Saxon word mang, among , as lying almost at an 
equal distance between the kingdoms of England, Scotland, 
Ireland, and Wales.” 

Mr. Felthain (copying from Mr. Quayle’s MS.) says, “ Some 
suppose the word to originate from Maune , the name of St. 
Patrick, the apostle of the island, before he assumed that of 
Patricius.” It is however hardly necessary to observe, as de¬ 
structive of both these derivations, that the name Mona, from 
which Man is clearly taken, was applied to the island long 
before the days of St. Patrick, or the Saxon occupation of 
England. It is in ancient British that we must look for the 
derivation, and the word Mon, and isolated may be adduced as 
a not improbable root. I am however myself inclined to de¬ 
rive it from ‘ Maen,’ a pile of stones or rocks ; the rather from 
observing that in other instances this word has passed through 
similar changes to that which we see in the name of this 
island. Whilst we have in Wales * Pen-maen-mawr* (Great 
head-stone), ‘Maen-twrog’ (the stone of Twrog), and so on, 
in which the root occurs; a pile of stones as a mark on the 
top of a mountain which the Welsh call Maen is in Cumber¬ 
land (the land of the Cymry, Cimbri or ancient Britons) called 
Man. Whilst we have Caernarvon (Caer-yn-ar-fon), the fort 
over against Mona, i.e. Anglesey; close by it is the Menai 
Strait (the strait of the water of Mona), in which the letter 
“e” of Maen seems retained*. By inspecting the following 

* There is in the Baltic an island called Moen. 


APPENDIX B. 


257 


table the character of the different changes will at once be 
perceived;— 


Caesar and Tacitus 

Ptolemy. 

Pliny . 

Orosius . 

Bede . 

Gildas. 

Britons . 

Manx . 

English . 


Mona. 

Movaoi^a, Movapiva, Mora vrjcro ?. 
Monabia. 

Menavia. 

Menavia secunda. 

Manau and Eu-itfn-ia. 

Menow. 

Mannin. 

Man. 


B. Page 12. 

On the title-page to Mr. Feltham’s ‘ Tour through the Isle 
of Man in 1797 and 1798,’ is given a view of a round battle- 
mented tower which stood at the extremity of the Pollock- 
rock, which forms a kind of jetty at the entrance to Douglas 
Harbour ; it was pulled down in 1818 as inconvenient. Waldron 
attributes its erection to the Romans. In the centre of it was a 
small round tower rising up above the rest of the building, which 
is said to be a peculiar feature in presumed Pictish raths. It 
was at any rate, whether Roman or Pictish, a most interesting 
memorial of the earliest days of the Isle, and might well have 
been permitted to remain whilst time would let it*. 

Though remains of the Romans on the island are few and 
of a very uncertain character, there is every probability that 
they were at one time masters of itf. On their departure 

* The fort is thus mentioned in Mr. Quayle’s MS. History of the Isle 
of Man :—“ Douglas hath alsoe a most considerable fort strongly built of 
hard stone round in forme, upon which are a mounted tower, and four 
pieces of ordinance. It is commanded by a Constable and Lieutenant. 
The Constable and two of the soldiers (which are there in continual pay) 
are bound to lye in this fort every night; and four of the townsmen are 
bound to keep watch and ward upon the rampart betwixt the fort and the 
towne.” 

f Sacheverell states that he puts no faith in a story quoted in Mr. 
Quayle’s MS. out of John Capgrave’s Life of Joseph of Ariraatliaea, viz. that 













258 


APPENDIX B. 


from Britain it fell into the hands of the Scots. Camden 
quotes a passage from Gildas to the effect, that in the reign of. 
the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius (a.d. 395) a Scot of the 
name of Brule, or Brude, had possession of the Isle. This 
agrees very well with the statement of Chaloner, that this 
“ island was first of all inhabited by the ancient Scots, that is 
to say, by the Irish or Highlanders of Scotland.”—Chaloner, 
chap. iv. p. 9. They seem to have had quiet possession 
during the whole of the fifth century, in which period the 
island was visited by the mission of St. Patrick*, and the 
Church settled under the Bishops Conindrius, Romulus, Maug- 
hold and Germanus. 

At the commencement of the sixth century it seems to have 
shared in the troubles of the surrounding countries, for we 
learn from the ‘ Annals of Ulster/ that in a.d. 503 there was 
war in Man under the conduct of Aodan, or Aydun ; and Sa- 
cheverell notices from the ‘ Antiquities of Glastonbury,’ that 
“ about a.d. 520 King Arthur conquered this Isle, which he 
generously restored to the native prince, and afterwards ad¬ 
mitted him among his Knights of the Round Table.” 

The more probable story however is that related in Rowland’s 
‘ Monastic Antiquities,’ viz. that Maelgwyn, nephew to Arthur, 
conquered the island from the Scots, and as an acknowledge¬ 
ment of his valour was admitted a Knight of the Round 
Table. It was however recovered from his son Rhun by Aydun 
M‘Gabhran, king of Scotland, in a.d. 581 (according to the 
‘Annals of Ulster’), who appointed his sister’s son Brennus 
(styled by Buchanan “ Brendinus Regulus Eubonise ”) to be 

“ one Mordraius, a king who delivered St. Joseph (at his first coming over 
into England) out of prison in Venedotia, i.e. in North Wales, by whom he 
was converted, governed the Isle of Man, a.d. 63. The city where he re¬ 
sided in Man was called Saracta.” This story may have originated in the 
common confusion of the two Monas. 

* He is said to have expelled the reputed necromancer Mannanan-beg- 
mac-y-Lheir, whom Manx tradition indicates as the Father, Founder, and 
Legislator of the country, “ who exacted no tax or subsidy from the people, 
but only the bearing of rushes to certain places called Warrefield and Mame 
on Midsummer even.” 


APPENDIX B. 


259 


his viceroy. Brennus, as Sacheverell states, hearing that his 
uncle was hard beset by the Piets and their confederates, 
raised what forces he could for his assistance, and in the year 
a.d. 594 was slain fighting at the head of his Manxmen, and 
with a prodigious slaughter of the enemy, left a bloody victory 
to his uncle. 

We have no clear intimation as to the successor of Brennus in 
the viceroyalty of Man, though it is not altogether improbable 
that Aydun appointed his own son Eugenius to that office, since 
we find (according to Sacheverell) that when Eugenius shortly 
after succeeded to the crown of Scotland, in memory of his 
own kind reception on the island, he committed his three sons 
Ferquard, Fiacre and Donald, to be educated under Conanus 
Bishop of the Isle. 

About thirty years after the death of Brennus, we find that 
Edwin king of Northumberland, following up his success 
against Cadwallon, a Welsh prince who had invaded his terri¬ 
tory, got possession of the Isle of Man, which (Sacheverell 
says) he wrested from the Scots. Afterwards Cadwallon, ob¬ 
taining aid from France and Scotland, reconquered the terri¬ 
tory which had been overrun by Edwin, and seems to have been 
permitted to retain the Isle of Man as part of the kingdom of 
North Wales. 

On his death, which took place in a.d. 676, the crown fell 
successively upon the head of his son and grandson, Caldwa- 
lader and Roderic, whose youngest son Howell claimed the Isle 
of Man as his portion of the kingdom. He appears to have 
been succeeded by Merfyn Frych, whose wife Essylt was niece 
to Howell and daughter of Cynan Tindsethwy king of North 
Wales; so that on the death of Cynan he united again the 
sovereignty of North Wales and Man in his own person*. 

In the ‘ Annals of Ulster ’ we read that in a.d. 841, two years 
before the death of Frych, a fleet from Man entered the Boyne, 
which would lead us to infer that he was engaged in making 
additions to his kingdom. His son Rodic Mawr (Roderic the 

* See Rowland’s Monastic Antiquities, p. 173. 


260 APPENDIX B. 

Great) was one of the greatest princes of his day, his territory 
including North and South Wales, with Powysland, Anglesey 
and the Isle of Man. 

On his death a partition again took place between his three 
sons Cadell, Aberfyn and Anarawd; the last succeeding to the 
sovereignty of Man. 

Towards the close of his reign the Northmen (Dubh Gals 
and Fin-Gals, i. e. Black Foreigners and White Foreigners) 
seized one after another upon the Isles in the west of Scotland, 
making continual descents upon the neighbouring countries. 
Amongst them the most notable was Gorree, Orrey, or Orry, 
who, in the beginning of the tenth century, having conquered 
the Orcades and Hebrides, arrived on the shores of the Isle of 
Man with a fleet of strong ships, and landed at the Lhane in 
the north of the island. To him we are indebted for the Scan¬ 
dinavian character of the constitution of the island. He 
established the House of Keys, the Meeting of Tynwald, and 
the division of the Isle into six sheadings. His son Guttred, 
the founder of Castle Rushen in 947, succeeded him. I have 
called him a Scandinavian * hero from the circumstance of the 
introduction of Scandinavian customs by his father Orry, whose 
true origin (probably Icelandic) is unknown, though he is gene¬ 
rally called Danish. 

We have then a succession of princes given us by Sacheverell 
in the following order :—Reginald, Olave, Olain, Allan, Fingall 
and Goddard, of whom little is known to their credit; but the 
next in order (a.d. 973), Macon or Ilacon, makes a figure in 
history, and is conspicuous as a naval commander in the days 
of the Anglo-Saxon Edgar. He was one of the petty kings 
(eight in number) who on the river Dee rowed in the royal 
barge, Edgar (“ Rex soli et salif ”) holding the helm^. Spel- 
man calls him the Prince of Seamen (“ totius Anglise Archipi- 
rata”), and states that his fleet consisted of 3600 ships of war, 
which annually sailed round the shores of Great Britain to free 

* Chap. IV. p. 34, supra. f Mr. Quayle’s MS., p. 4. 

X Hume’s History of England, chap.ii. 


APPENDIX B. 


261 


them from pirates. His name also (Macusius, as Spelman 
writes it) appears in the charter of Glastonbury* subscribed 
immediately after the king of Scotland. Camden states that 
he was not only king of Man but of many other isles, and 
places his date about a.d. 960'f. From him it would seem 
the ancient arms of the Isle of Man were adopted, viz. a ship 
in -her ruff (in full sail) with the motto “ Rex Mannise et In- 
sularum, which arms Camden states he had seen on a seal 
belonging to the king of Man J. These continued in use till 
the Scottish conquest (a.d. 1270), when by Alexander III. 
they were exchanged to the present arms, which are,—Gules 
three armed-legs proper, conjoined in fess, at the upper part of 
the thigh flexed in triangle, garnished and spurred topaz, with 
the motto “ Quocunque jeceris stabit§ ” surrounding it in a 
garter. The motto has been singularly appropriate to the 
island, for after all the tossings about from one master to 
another, it has had the felicity to drop upon its legs, and has 
retained to the present time its ancient peculiar and indepen¬ 
dent constitution. 

The date of the death of Macon has not been preserved, hut 
as we read in the ‘ Annals of Ulster ’ of a battle in Man in 
986 between Godred or Goddard M‘Harald and the Gals, and 
as we learn also from the ‘Irish Annals’ that Macon was a son of 
Iiarald, it seems very probable that about this time Goddard 
was occupying the throne which had previously been possessed 
by his brother Macon. Sacheverell however, with some evident 
misgivings, names Syrach as holding the kingdom about the 
beginning of the eleventh century, and says he was succeeded 
by his son Goddard, who was king so late as 1065. The fol¬ 
lowing list, as given by Mr. Train from Skenes’s ‘ Highlanders 
of Scotland’ and the ‘ Irish Annals,’ is evidently more correct. 

Goddard was succeeded in 996 by his son Reginald, upon 
whose death in 1034 his nephew Suibne|| came to the throne. 

* Sacheverell’s Account, p. 27. 

t Mr. Quayle’s MS., p. 4. + Britannia, p. 24. 

§ “ Whichever way you shall have thrown it, it will stand.” 

|| Skenes’s Highlanders of Scotland, part 2. chap.ii. 


262 


1 


APPENDIX B. 


Suibne appears to have been slam in defending his territory 
against Torfin, Jarl of the Orkneys, in 1034 ; and in 1040* we 
read of Harold, a king of Man, dying at Duncha in Ireland, 
and being succeeded by Goddard, son of Sygtrigt, king of the 
Danes in Dublin. 

During the whole of this century a very close connection had 
existed between the Danes of Dublin and those of the Isle of 
Man; they seem to have been bound together by a league offen¬ 
sive and defensive ; and the sovereignties of Dublin and of Man 
were either held by cne and the same person, or hy members of 
the same family. 

The close of it however saw a change in the line of kings 
who exercised this sway. Goddard Crovan (called also Chrou- 
ban, Crownan and Cronan+), the son of Harold the Black of 
Iceland, having been amongst the forces of the Norwegian 
monarch Harald Harfager, which were beaten by the Anglo- 
Saxon Harold at Stamford Bridge, a.d. 1066, took refuge 
in the Isle of Man, where he was kindly entertained. Goddard, 
the reigning king at that time, seems to have incurred the 
odium of his subjects, and Goddard Crovan determined to take 
advantage of this feeling. He returned to his own country, 
and raising a great fleet, shortly after invaded the Isle, where 
he found Fingall, the son of Goddard, occupying the throne in 
place of his father just deceased. After two repulses § he was 
successful, and established himself on the throne, Fingall being 
slain in battle along with Sygtrig M‘01ave king of Dublin and 
two O’Brians in 10771] - 

After his conquest of Man^f, Goddard Crovan made himself 

* Annals of Ulster. 

f In the ‘ Chronicles of Man ’ he is called the son of Sygtrig, though 
Mr. Train, from the * Annals of the Four Masters,’ states that he was 
brother to Eachmarcach, son of Reginald king of the Danes, who was 
driven from Dublin, a.b. 1052, by Dermid, son of Maihambo king of Inis- 
gall, Dublin and Munster.—Train’s History, vol. i. p. 70. 

X See Chap. V. p. 45, supra. 

*§ See Chap. XIV. p. 227, supra. 

|| According to the ‘ Annals of Ulster,’ a.d.- 1073. 

See Chap. V. p. 45, supra. 


APPENDIX B. 


263 


also master of Dublin and a considerable portion of Leinster. 
He also (as the e Rushen Chronicle ’ tells us) humbled the 
Scotch to such a degree that no ship-builder durst use above 
three bolts in any vessel. 

On his death, after an uncertain reign * of sixteen years, 
Lagman (a.d. 1104), the eldest of his three sons, mounted the 
throne, which he was forced again to vacatef, and the youngest 
son of Goddard Crovan, Olave the Dwarf, was unanimously 
elected (a.d. 1114) to supply his place. To him is due the 
foundation of Rushen Abbey and the tripartite division of the 
insular tithe; he is highly extolled for his amiable character 
and the general mildness of his reign, yet he perished by the 
hand of an assassin, and that assassin his own nephew Reginald, 
the eldest of the three sons of that Harald whom Lagman had 
so barbarously mutilated. These three had entered into a con¬ 
spiracy to dethrone Olave ; uniting with themselves several dis¬ 
affected persons, they demanded a moiety of the kingdom as 
the children of an elder brother. Olave appointed a conference 
on the day of the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul (a.d. 1154^), 
on which occasion Reginald stepped forward under pretence to 
salute the king, and with one blow of his axe severed his head 
from his body. 

Olave left by his wife Affrica, daughter of Fergus Lord of 
Galloway, a son, Godred the Black. He left also an illegiti¬ 
mate family, Reginald, Lawman and Harald, with several 
daughters, one of whom was married to Somerled, prince of 
Argyle, which proved highly injurious to the monarchy, 
through the machinations of her sons Dubh Gal, Reginald, 
Aongus and Olave. 

Godred the Black had been educated at the court of Norway; 
on his return he was at once acknowledged successor to his father. 
He caused his father’s murderer Reginald to be put to death, 
and the two younger brothers to be deprived of their eyes. In 
the third year of his reign the people of Dublin invited him to 

* See Chap. V. p. 46, supra. 

+ According to the Chronicon Manniae, a.d. 1142. 


f Ibid. p. 47. 


264 


APPENDIX B. 


be their king (a.d. 1155) on the death of Reginald king of the 
Danes. Ottar, who had been his competitor for the crown 
having been slain, bequeathed to his son Torfin an intense 
hatred against Godred. Torfin entered into an alliance with 
Somerled to place his eldest son Dubli Gal on the throne of 
the Isles. The hostile fleets met in Ramsey Bay on the eve of 
the feast of the Epiphany, 1156, and though success was not 
determinate to either, the ultimate result was a division of the 
kingdom of the Isles*, Godred retaining only the Isle of 
Man. Two years after Somerled made a second expedition 
against Godred, and possessed himself of the Isle of Man. 
Godred fled to Norway, where he resided six years, till the 
death of Somerled in 1164, when he returned to take posses¬ 
sion again of his throne in Man. Here he found his natural 
brother Reginald prepared to dispute the sovereignty. A battle 
was fought at Ramsey, in which Reginald was successful; a 
second, which took place four days after, reversed the scales. 
Godred regained his kingdom, but had the cruelty to mutilate 
his brother, and put out his eyes. 

Godred being resettled in his kingdom, took to wife Fingala, 
daughter of MacLauchlan king of Ireland, but the marriage 
not having been canonically performed (a.d. 11/6), Yiranus, 
Apostolic Legate from Pope Alexander III., came into Man 
and caused the marriage to be solemnized afresh, when his son 
Olave was three years oldf. On this occasion the king gave 
to Sylvanus, the Abbot who performed the ceremony, as an 
expiation of his ertor, a piece of land atMirescogh in Lezavre, 
which afterwards became the property of Rushen Abbey. 

Godred died in a good old age, in the year a.d. 1187, on the 
10th of November, in St. Patrick’s Isle, and the year after his 
body was translated to the island of Iona. Godred left besides 
Olave two older illegitimate children, Reginald and Ivar. In 
his lifetime he had nominated Olave his successor, who being 
only thirteen years old at the time of his father’s death, Regi- 

* See Chap. XIY. p. 232, supra. 

t Sacheverell’s Account, p. 44. 


APPENDIX B. 


265 


nald was invited (a.d. 1188) to occupy the throne during his 
minority. Olave was of a peaceful disposition, and when he 
found his illegitimate brother disinclined to surrender the king¬ 
dom to him when of full age, rather than lose all he accepted 
the Isle of Lewis as his moiety of the kingdom of the Isles. 
This isle, mountainous and barren, he found utterly insufficient 
for his maintenance. On petitioning Reginald for an extension 
of the grant, he was invited to an audience, traitorously seized 
(a.d. 1208), and sent a prisoner to William king of Scotland, 
where he was kept in durance seven years, till the death of 
that monarch and the kindness of his successor Alexander 
opened his prison-doors. 

On his liberation he came to Man, and soon after went on a 
pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella. At a 
subsequent period we find an apparent reconciliation between 
Reginald and Olave, and the latter again accepting the Isle of 
Lewis. It is however very clear that the usurper Reginald 
felt the crown of Man sitting uneasily on his brow, as we find 
him casting about on all sides for helps and alliances. In the 
sixth year of his reign John of England took Reginald into his 
protection, and granted him a knight’s fee in Ireland, “pro 
faeodo et servitio suo* ; ” and in 1219 Henry III. granted to 
him letters of safe conduct to come into England to do him 
homage for his crown. Yet, as if this were not sufficient secu¬ 
rity, he determined on imitating John of England in submitting 
himself to the Pope, and making to him a surrender of his 
usurped kingdom. The act of his surrender to Honorius III. 
is given in Appendix F. Yet it was all to no purpose ; Olave 
daily gained ground in the affections of the people, and on his 
presenting himself (a.d. 1224) in the Isle of Man, under the 
conduct of Paul Balkason, Sheriff of Skye, Reginald was glad 
to yield to him one-half the kingdom of the Isles. Afterwards, 
the Manx, disgusted with the duplicity of Reginald, who had 
now held the kingdom thirty-eight years, sent for Olave, and 

* Sacheverell, Account, p. 51. 

N 


266 


APPENDIX B. 


placed the crown on his head. After two years Reginald made 
an attempt to regain possession, and after some severe struggles 
the contest was at length decided at the Tynwald Hill, on St. 
Valentine’s day, 1229, when the party of Reginald was defeated 
and himself slain. 

The year following Olave repaired to the court of Norway, 
and did homage to Haco Hagenson the reigning monarch. 
Olave occupied the throne for nine years after the death of 
Reginald, and died on the 21st of May 1237, leaving three 
sons, Harold, Reginald, and Magnus. 

The first of these at the age of fourteen came to the throne, 
and wielded the sceptre ten years. He perished by shipwreck 
on his return from Norway in 1248*. 

His successor, Reginald, was murdered by the knight Ivarf 
the year following, and it was not till the year 1252 that Mag¬ 
nus, youngest son of Olave, gained possession of the throne. 
He was the last of the race of Goddard Crovan wdio swayed 
the sceptre of Man. He died in 1265, having done homage to 
Alexander III. of Scotland. 

The year following, Magnus VI. of Norw r ay, successor to 
Haco Hagenson, ceded to the king of Scotland and his heirs 
the Isle of Man and the Hebrides, with all the rights and pri¬ 
vileges belonging to the said island, without any restraint, 
along with the Episcopacy of Man, the lands, jurisdictions, and 
liberty of the church of Nidrosien, in every thing that he pos¬ 
sessed in the Episcopacy and Church of Man; the composition 
to be paid by the king of Scotland being fixed at 4000 marks 
sterling, in four yearly payments of 1000 marks each, and an 
annual pension (called by the Norwegians a tribute) of 100 
marks per annum. This treaty was done at Perth on the Fri¬ 
day after the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, a.d. 1266. 

It was not however till four years after this that the Scotch 
gained possession of the island, when King Alexander placed 
in it a succession of Thanes as governors, of whom Godred 

* See Chap. VIII. p. 101, supra. 


f Ibid. 


APPENDIX B. 


267 


M‘Manus was the first; after him Allan; then Maurice, Oker- 
fair, Brennus and Donald*. In 1290 EdwardI. took posses¬ 
sion of the island on its surrender by Richard de Burgo, and 
gave letters-patent, 4th June 1290, to hold the same to Walter 
de Huntercomb, who the year following surrendered it by King 
Edward’s order to John Baliol king of Scotland, to be held 
by him as a fief from the crown of England. 

The history of the Isle of Man for the next fifty years is ex¬ 
tremely complicated, arising partly from its connection with the 
crown of Scotland, and partly from the circumstance of there 
being two lines of succession by the female side of the family 
of Goddard Crovan, each claiming an interest in the crown of 
Man. 

Mary, the daughter of Reginald, last king but one of the 
race of Goddard Crovan, on the death of Magnus had been 
secretly conveyed away from the island, with all the public 
deeds and charters. She appears to have been married to the 
Earl of Strathem, and afterwards to John de Waldeheof. 

Whilst King Edward I. was at Perth, adjusting the difference 
between Bruce and Baliol, competitors for the crown of Scot¬ 
land, she put in her claim for the Isle of Man, and offered to 
do homage to him for it, but was* referred to Baliol. She died 
whilst prosecuting her claim, and her right descended to Wil¬ 
liam her son and heir, and from him to John his son, who pre¬ 
sented his petition in Parliament to King Edward in the thirty- 
third year of his reign (a.d. 1305), and was referred for a 
hearing in the King’s Bench. 

The rival claim to the throne of Man arose from Affrica, 
younger sister to Magnus, the last king of Man, and therefore 
aunt to the aforesaid Mary, daughter of Reginald. In a deed 

* Okefair’s successor is said in Mr. Quayle’s MS. to have been Chaplain 
of King Alexander. The conduct of Allan was so tyrannical that the Manx 
rose in a body against the Scottish Government. By the intervention of 
the Bishop, the whole matter was referred to the result of a combat of 
thirty champions on each side. The Manx lost the day, five of the Scots 
surviving when all the Manx champions were slain. Allan was pressed to 
death by the people. 


268 


APPENDIX B. 


of gift, dated at Bridgewater in Somerset (a.d. 1305), in which 
she styles herself “Aufrica de Connoght heres de Man,” she 
made over the island to Sir Simon de Monte Acuto (Simon 
Montacute), from whom a claim thus descended to his son Sir 
William Montacute, who is said to have mortgaged it for seven 
years to Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of 
Jerusalem, which Bishop obtained also a grant of it for life from 
Edward II. 

On the death of that prelate, March 3, 1311, the rival 
claim to the Isle of Man appears still to have been entertained by 
the Montacute family. This rivalry was however at length 
happily set aside by the union of the two contesting families in 
the persons of Sir William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury (son 
to the last-mentioned Sir William), with Mary, daughter of 
William de Waldebeof, and therefore great-granddaughter of 
Reginald, the son of Olave the Black. This appears to have 
taken place in 1343, through the influence of Edward III., who 
furnished to the Earl of Salisbury men and means for the con¬ 
quest of the island from the Scotch, who then had it in posses¬ 
sion. During the period in which this contest had been going 
on between the two branches of the family of Goddard Crovan, 
the kings of England and Scotland, as each had possession of 
it, seem to have disposed of this island to other parties, accord¬ 
ing to their own pleasure. 

In the beginning of the year 1307, Edward I., dispossessing 
Henry de Beaumont, granted the custody of the island to Gil¬ 
bert de MacGaskill, and he was allowed by Parliament the sum 
of 581596 05. 10 d. for his expenses, being 501215 3s. Ad. for 
the cost of defence against the Scots, and 50380 1 7s. 6d. fur¬ 
nished by him for provisions to the Governor of Carlisle. 

King Edward I. died July 7th of that same year. His son 
within the period of the year following made no less than three 
grants of the island to as many of his favourites, viz. Piers 
Gaveston of Gascony, Gilbert de MacGaskill, and Henry de 
Beaumont; but it is doubtful if any of them ever actually had 
possession ; and if they had, the party of Bruce very soon began 


APPENDIX B. 


269 


to contest it with the nominees of the English king ; and in 
1313 we read that “ Robert Bruce himself sat down before 
Castle Rushen, which for six months was obstinately defended 
by one Dingay Dowyll * * * § , though in whose name we do not 
findf.” And not long after it was granted to Robert Randolph, 
Earl of Murray, afterwards regent of Scotland^. At this 
time John de Ergadia, who had married a daughter of the 
Red Comyn, and had large possessions in the Isle of Man, was 
forced to flee with his family into Ireland, as from espousing 
his father-in-law’s side he was obnoxious to the family of 
Bruce. He afterwards returned. with some forces, and ex* 
pelled the Scots in the king of England’s name. 

It is evident however that again the Scots gained possession 
from the circumstance before noted, that Sir William Monta- 
cute was obliged to win the island from them. 

It was whilst Murray held the island, that Martholine, 
almoner to the king of Scotland, was sent over in the year 
1329 to take care of the business of religion and reformation of 
manners. Sacheverell tells us that he wrote a work against 
witchcraft, then greatly practised here, and minted a copper 
coin, with the king’s effigy on one side and a cross on the 
other, with the inscription, “ Crux est Christianorum gloria§.” 

The Scotch during their tenure of the island appear to have 
been regarded by the Manx with intense feelings of hatred, 
and these feelings continued long after their expulsion. A 
law was passed in 14221|, “ that all Scots avoid the land with 
the next vessel that goeth into Scotland, upon a paine of for¬ 
feiture of their goods, and their bodies to prison.” 

In the year 1344 Sir William Montacute was solemnly 

* Dugal Macdouall. f Sacheverell’s Account, p. 71. 

X The Randolph family quartered the arms of Man upon their escutcheon; 

and it was from the circumstance of this short possession of the island 
that this same device appeared upon the shield of the Duke of Albany, 
who was created from that family in 1398. See Train’s History, vol. i. 
p. 149. 

§ Sacheverell’s Account, p. 72. 

II See Mill’s Statute Laws of the Isle of Man, p. 27. 


270 


APPENDIX B. 


crowned king of Man, but the family seem to have held the 
island by an uneasy tenure; and in the year 1393 the Earl of 
Salisbury sold it to Sir William Scroop*, the king’s chamber- 
lain, afterwards Earl of Wiltshire, on whose attainder and exe¬ 
cution in 1399, Henry IY. granted the Isle to Henry Percy, 
Earl of Northumberland, to be held by him on the service of 
carrying the sword of Lancaster on the day of the coronation 
of the kings of England. 

He was four years after, on his attainder, deprived of it again 
by Act of Parliament, and in the seventh year of his reign the 
king granted it to Sir John Stanley for life only. Subse¬ 
quently (a.d. 1406) he extended the grant to him in perpetuity, 
in as full and ample a manner as it had been granted to any 
former lord to be held of the crown of England, by paying to 
the king, his heirs and successors, a cast of falcons at their 
coronation. He died in the beginning of 1414, being at the 
time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, “ a man truly great and an 
honour to his country.” 

He was succeeded by his son Sir John Stanley, who came 
into the Isle in the year 1417, and in the June of the same 
year convened a meeting of the whole island at the Tynwald 
Hill, on which occasion were promulgated the laws which ap¬ 
pear first in the Statute Book of the island. 

He held subsequent Tynwald Courts, either in person or by 
his lieutenants, in the years 1422, 1429 and 1430, in which 
important alterations were made in previous laws and new ones 
enacted; amongst the former, “ prowess or trial by combat,” 
which had hitherto been allowed, was henceforth abolished. 
His death took place in 1432, when he was succeeded by Sir 
Thomas Stanley, his son, created (a.d. 1456) Baron Stanley 
by Henry VI. ; after whom succeeded (a.d. 1460) Thomas 
his son, created first Earl of Derby by Henry VII. in 1485. 
He married Margaret, daughter of the Duke of Somerset and 
Dowager-duchess of Richmond, and mother of Henry VII. 
He is remarkable in English history as having crowned the 

* For the terms of sale, see p. 193, supra , 


APPENDIX B. 


271 


Earl of Richmond immediately after the battle of Bosworth 
Field. In 1505 he was succeeded by Thomas his grandson, 
who resigned the regal title under the conviction that “ to be 
a great lord is more honourable than to be a petty king*.” 

On his decease in 1521 Edward his son was only fourteen 
years of age, and the island was therefore during his minority 
under a commission, consisting of the Bishop, the Lieutenant- 
governor, the Archbishop of York, and the Chancellor of 
England. 

After his accession to the Lordship of the Isle, he lived forty- 
four years, in the reign of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary and 
Elizabeth, and saw through the eventful period of the Re¬ 
formation. He died October 24th, 1572. 

Henry his son succeeded him as fourth Earl of Derby. He 
appears in all his acts to have been a strenuous supporter of 
the Reformation, which hardly was carried out in the Isle of 
Man during the life of his father. He was a bitter enemy of 
Mary Queen of Scots, and was appointed one of the Commis¬ 
sioners for her trial at Fotheringay. He died September 25th, 
1594, leaving two sons, Ferdinand and William, of whom the 
latter had been Governor of the Isle the year before his father’s 
death. 

Ferdinand, the elder son, succeeding to the Lordship of Man 
in 1594, was poisoned by his servant in the beginning of the 
following year, upon which his younger brother William, en¬ 
deavouring to take possession, found his claim contested on 
behalf of the four daughters of Ferdinand, who had left no 
son. 

Queen Elizabeth appointed a commission to determine the 
question; in the mean time taking the island under her own 
protection, and appointing Sir Thomas Gerrard Governor. 
When James I. came to the throne, he seems to have taken 
advantage of the doubts created as to the rightful heirs to make 

* See Earl of Derby’s Letter to his son in Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa, 
voL iL p. 436. 


272 


APPENDIX B. 


grants of the island at different times to other parties not con¬ 
nected with the Derby family. Perhaps he may have been led 
to this from a consideration of the feeling shown tow r ards his 
unfortunate mother by Earl Edward. 

After years of litigation the result was given in favour of 
the female succession, but a compromise being entered into 
between the daughters of Ferdinand and their uncle, an Act 
was passed in 1610, assuring and establishing the Isle of Man 
in the name and blood of William Earl of Derby, who then 
entered upon possession. Towards the close of his life, being 
desirous of retiring from public business, he by deed of gift 
(a.d. 1637) to his son James, Lord Strange, placed in his 
power the Isle of Man and all his other estates, on condition of 
the payment to himself of an annuity therefrom of <£1000. 
Earl William died in 1642. 

James some time before this deed of gift had visited the 
Isle of Man, and took order for the settling the Government. 
His name appears connected with the acts of Tynwald passed 
in 1629 and 1636. The conduct of this noble earl during the 
civil war is fully detailed in Appendix G. infra , and the parti¬ 
culars of his execution at Bolton in 1651 are there given. His 
estates were taken possession of in the name of the Parliament, 
and after the reduction of the Isle of Man by Colonel Ducken- 
field, it was granted to Lord Fairfax as an acknowledgment of 
his great services. 

In 1652 Fairfax appointed James Chaloner and Robert 
Dinely, Esquires, and Jonathan Witt on. Clerk, as his Commis¬ 
sioners for the government of the Isle. 

At the Restoration, the Isle of Man and the other estates of 
the Derby family which had been sequestrated returned to 
their right owner, and Charles the eighth Earl of Derby (eldest 
son of James) became Lord of Man, a.d. 1660. He died in 
1672, and was succeeded by his eldest son William, who mar¬ 
ried Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Earl of Ossory, by whom 
he had one son, William (who died in 1700 without issue). 




APPENDIX B. 


273 


and two daughters, Elizabeth, who died without issue, and 
Henrietta, who was married, first to John Earl of Anglesea, 
and afterwards to John Lord Ashburnham. She had two 
daughters by these marriages, who both died without issue. 

On the death therefore of William the ninth Earl, James, a 
younger son of Charles, became tenth Earl of Derby and Lord 
of Man in 1702. It was from this Earl that Bishop Wilson 
obtained in 1703 that great benefit to the island the Act of 
Settlement, by which the properties of the gentry and land- 
owners were secured to them for ever on the payment of certain 
fines, rents and dues to the Lord. He died without issue in 
1735, the last of that illustrious family which had governed the 
Isle of Man for more than 300 years; and then the kingdom of 
Man devolved on James Murray second Duke of Athol, who 
was descended from Lady Amelia Sophia, youngest daughter 
of the noble James, seventh Earl of Derby, who had been mar¬ 
ried to John Marquis of Athol, his grandfather, all the older 
branches of the seventh Earl of Derby’s family having died off. 

This James was third son to John, created first Duke of 
Athol. His eldest brother, the Marquis Tullibardin, being 
dead, and the second brother being under attainder in conse¬ 
quence of the part he took in the rebellion of 1716, he succeeded 
to his father’s titles and estates in 1724, and in the year 1736 
came in for the Lordship of Man in the manner just stated. 

During his reign illicit commerce very rapidly gained ground 
in the Isle of Man, causing much annoyance to the British 
Government, who made to him several overtures for the pur¬ 
chase of his rights in the island, but without coming to any 
conclusion. 

James died in 1764, and leaving no male issue was succeeded 
by his nephew John in the Dukedom. John having also mar¬ 
ried James’s daughter Charlotte, the Baroness Strange, in 1753, 
became also Lord of Man in his wife’s right. The Britisli 
Government still continuing their overtures of purchase, the 
Duke, beginning to fear lest if he were too pertinacious of his 
rights he should lose all without any equivalent, at length 
agreed to surrender the revenues of the Isle for ^£70,000, and 

n 5 




274 


APPENDIX B. 


an annuity to himself and Duchess of 562000 . The title of 
Lord of Man, the manorial right, the patronage of the Bishop¬ 
ric, mines, minerals and treasure-trove, were still reserved to 
him on the honorary service of rendering a cast of falcons 
at every coronation, and the annual payment of a rent of 
56 IOI 15s. 11 d. The Act by which this was accomplished, 
passed in January 1765, is known by the name of the Act of 
Revestment. This was the third time that the island changed 
hands by purchase; the two former instances being those of 
Alexander III. of Scotland, who gained it thus of the king of 
Norway; and of Sir William Scroop, who bought it of Sir Wil¬ 
liam Montacute. 

John, the third duke of Athol, dying in 1774, his son John 
succeeded to his title and estates. Under the conviction that 
the family had not received a suitable remuneration for their 
surrendered rights, he petitioned Parliament in 1781 and 1790 
for a further allowance, but without success. At length, in 
1805, he obtained a grant of the fourth part of the revenues of 
the island, afterwards commuted to 563000 per annum for 
ever. However, in 1825, the Duke acceded to a proposition 
made to him by the Lords of the Treasury to purchase the 
whole of his remaining interest in the island for the sum of 
56416 , 11 4 ; and thus the Isle of Man became entirely and de¬ 
finitely, with all the rights and privileges of the royalty, vested 
in the British Crown. John, fourth Duke of Athol, died Sep¬ 
tember 29, 1830, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, having 
been Lord of Man fifty-five years : he had rendered the accus¬ 
tomed service of a cast of falcons at the coronation of George IV. 

The following is an analysis of the sum of 56416,114 paid 
by the British Government to the Duke of Athol:— 

£. 


For the Customs’ revenue. 

Rents and alienation fines. 

Tithes, mines, quarries . 

Patronage of the bishopric, with fourteen advowsons, the 
aggregate value of which was £6000 . 


150,000 

34,000 

132,114 

100,000 


£416,114 








APPENDIX B. 


275 


Deducting from the above amount the sum of £ 100,000, paid 
for the ecclesiastical patronage which the Crown now holds, we 
have the residue, 56316,114, the interest of which sum at 3^ 
per cent, per annum is 5611,065. 

In order to get at an idea of the value of this purchase to 
the British Government, and the surplus paid to the Consoli¬ 
dated Fund of the United Kingdom from the Isle of Man, we 
have the following balance-sheet, which for convenience is 
given in round numbers, the amount derived from the Customs 
being for the year 1846, and the rest an average of five years* 
the royalties of the mines and quarries being the only variable 
quantities. 

Isle of Man Revenue. 

Receipt. 

Customs’ duties on wine, spirits, tobacco, tea, coffee, sugar and 


timber. 26,500 

Mines and quarries’ royalties (average) . 3,900 

Lord’s rent, abbey rents, quit rents and fines. 1,300 

Tithes commuted. 500 


Total receipt . 32,200 

Deduct expenditure . 25,200 


Surplus revenue. £ 7,000 


Expenditure. 

Civil establishment.—Salaries, expenses of the Government and 

the administration of justice. 8,000 

Harbours. 2,300 

Collection of Customs, prevention of smuggling, and agent for 

Woods and Forests . 3,900 

Interest on £416,114 at 3£ per cent. 11,000 


Total expenditure .£25,200 


The Isle of Man has (from time immemorial) been governed 
by its own laws, made and enacted by the three estates of the 
Isle, viz.— 

The King or Lord. 

The Governor and Council. 





















276 


APPENDIX B. 


The Twenty-four Keys or Taxiaxi, as the representatives of 
the inhabitants of the Isle. 

These estates, when assembled, are called a Tynwald Court, 
and their triple concurrence establishes the law, which has 
force after it has been proclaimed from the Tynwald Hill. 

The Council consists of the Bishop, the two Deemsters, the 
Clerk of the Rolls, the Attorney-General, the Receiver-Gene¬ 
ral, the Water Bailiff, the Archdeacon, and the Vicar-General. 

Prior to the year 1846 there were two Vicars-General. The 
offices of Receiver-General and Water Bailiff are at present 
held by one person. 

Anciently the Abbot of Rushen and the Archdeacon’s offi¬ 
cial had seats in the Council. 

The Governor or Lieutenant-Governor is chief both in civil 
and military power, and has by law authority to call a Tynwald 
Court as often as he finds necessary, at which the Council and 
Keys, according to their oaths, are bound to attend. 

One clause in the Governor’s oath is remarkable:—“You 
shall truly and uprightly deal between our Sovereign Lady the 
Queen and her people, and as indifferently betwixt party and 
party, as this staff now standeth, as far as in you lieth.” 

The Deemsters are the first popular magistrates, the supreme 
judges in all civil courts, whether for life or property. The 
office is of the highest antiquity. It is uncertain whether their 
name is. derived from to deem or to doom. Formerly, before 
the laws were written, in all new and emergent cases they 
were called in to declare what the law was, and the laws so 
declared were named Breast-laws. 

The oath administered to a Deemster when appointed, runs 
thus :—“ By this book, and by the holy contents thereof, and 
by the wonderful works that God hath miraculously wrought 
in heaven above and in the earth beneath, in six days and 
seven nights, I (A. B.) do swear that I will, without respect of 
favour or friendship, love or gain, consanguinity or affinity, 
envy or malice, execute the laws of this isle justly betwixt our 
Sovereign Lady the Queen and her subjects within this isle, 


APPENDIX B. 


277 


and betwixt party and party as indifferently as the herring 
hack-hone doth lie in the midst of the fish. So help me God 
and by the contents of this book.” 

There were formerly four baronies within the Isle, for which 
courts were holden, viz. the Bishop’s Barony, the Abbot’s or 
Abbey Barony, the Barony of Bangor and Sabel, and the 
Barony of St. Trinion. 

Till the year 1845 the Bishop and the Archdeacon were mem¬ 
bers of the Court of General Gaol delivery. Before that time 
it was retained as an ancient usage, that the Bishop, or some 
priest appointed by him, should sit with the Governor in the 
trial of capital cases till sentence of death (if any) was to be 
pronounced, the Deemster asking the jury, instead of guilty or 
not guilty, “ Yod fir-charree soie?” which means literally, 
“ May the man of the chancel, or he that ministers at the 
altar, continue to sit?” 

The following is a catalogue of the Governors and Lieutenant- 
Governors of the Isle of Man since the accession of the house 
of Stanley:— 

A.D. 

1407. Michael Blundell, Lieutenant. 

1417. John Letherland, Lieutenant. 

1418. John Fasakerly, Lieutenant. 

1422. John Walton, Lieutenant. 

1428. Henry Byron, Lieutenant. No records till 

1496. Peter Dutton, Lieutenant. 

1497. Henry Radcliffe, Abbot of Rushen, Deputy. 

1505. Randolph Rushton, Captain. 

1508. Sir John Ireland, Knt., Lieutenant. 

1516. John Ireland, Lieutenant. 

1517. Randolph Rushton, Captain. 

1519. Thomas Danisport, Captain. 

1526. Richard Holt, Lieutenant. ^ 

1529. John Fleming, Captain. 

1530. Thomas Sherburn, Lieutenant. 

1532. Henry Bradley, Deputy-Lieutenant. 


278 


APPENDIX B. 


A.D. 

1533. Henry Stanley, Captain. 

1535. George Stanley, Captain. 

1537. Thomas Stanley, Knt., Lieutenant. 

1539. George Stanley, Captain. 

1540. Thomas Tyldesley, Deputy. 

1544. William Stanley, Deputy. 

1552. Henry Stanley, Captain. 

1561. Sir Richard Sherburne, Lieutenant. 

1562. Thomas Stanley, Knt., Lieutenant. 

1566. Richard Ashton, Captain. 

1567. Thomas Stanley, Knt., Lieutenant. 
1569. Edward Tarbock, Captain. 

1575. John Hanmer, Captain. 

1580. Richard Sherburn, Captain. 

1591. Richard Aderton, Lieutenant. 

1^02 / Cuth. Gerrard, Captain. 


I Thomas Mortimer, Deputy. 

1593. The Hon. William Stanley, Captain, afterwards 

Earl of Derby. 

1594. Randolph Stanley, Captain. 

’Sir Thomas Gerrard, Knt., Captain. Peter 
Legh, appointed Governor by Queen Eliza- 
* ^ heth in the absence of Sir Thomas Gerrard. 
[ Cuth. Gerrard, Deputy, 
f Thomas Gerrard, Knt., Captain. 

I Robert Molineux, Deputy. 

Cuth. Gerrard, Captain. 



I Robert Molineux, Deputy. 

1600. Robert Molineux, Captain. 

1609. John Ireland and John Birchall, Governors, con¬ 

jointly by patent. 

1610. John Ireland, Lieutenant and Captain. 

1612. Robert Molineux, Captain. 

1621. Edward Fletcher, Deputy. 

1622. Edward Fletcher, Governor. 



APPENDIX B. 


279 


A.D. 

1623. Sir Fred. Liege, Knt., Captain. 

1625. Edward Fletcher, Deputy. 

1626. Edward Holmewood, Captain. 

1627. Edward Fletcher, Deputy. 

1628. Edward Christian, Lieutenant and Captain. 

1634. Evan Christian, Deputy. 

1635. Sir Charles Gerrard, Knt., Captain. 

1636. John Sharpies, Deputy. 

1639. Radcliffe Gerrard, Captain. 

1640. John Greenhalgh, Governor. 

1651. Philip Musgrave, Knt. and Bart. 

1651.1 Q 0 i 0ne i Robert Duckenfield, Governor. 

1652. / 


1652. 

1652, 


1653, 

1656. 

1659, 

1660. 

1663. 

1664, 

1669, 

1677. 

1678. 

1691, 

1692, 
1696, 


Samuel Smith, Deputy-Governor. 

Aug. 18, Lord Fairfax made commissioners for 
the governing the Isle this year, James Cha- 
loner, Robert Dineley, Esqrs., Jonathan Wil¬ 
ton, Clerk. 

Matthew Cadwell, Governor. 

William Christian, Governor. 

James Chaloner. 

After the Restoration, 
f Rodger Nowell, Governor. 

1 Richard Stephenson, Deputy. 
f Henry Nowell, Deputy part of the year, and 
1 Thomas Stanley for the other part, 
f Bishop Barrow, Governor. 

I Henry Nowell, his Deputy. 

Henry Nowell, Governor. 

Henry Stanley, Governor. 

Robert Heywood, Governor. 

Roger Kenyon, Esq., Governor. 

William Sacheverell, Governor. 

Colonel Nicholas Sankey, Governor. 

Hon. Captain Cranston, Governor. 


280 


APPENDIX C. 


A.D. 

1703. 

1714. 

1726. 

1734. 

1739. 

1741. 

1757. 

1763. 

1765. 

1776. 

1777. 

1791. 

1798. 

1805. 

1832. 

1845, 


f Robert Mawdesley, Esq., Governor. 

I John Rowe, Deputy. 

Captain Alex. Horne, Governor. 

Major Floyde, Governor. 

Thomas Horton, Governor. 

James Horton. 

Hon. James Murray, first Governor under the 
Duke of Athol. 

Patrick Lindsay. 

Basil Cochrane, Esq., Governor. 

Captain John Wood, Governor. 

The Island sold to the Crown, J. Hope, Deputy- 
Governor. 

Richard Dawson, Lieutenant-Governor. 
fEdw. Smith, Esq., Governor-in-Chief. 

L Richard Dawson, Lieutenant-Governor. 
Alexander Shaw, Esq., Lieutenant. 

His Grace the Duke of Athol, Governor-in-Chief. 
Colonel Cornelius Smelt, Lieutenant. 

General John Ready, Lieutenant. 

The Hon. Charles Hope, Lieutenant. 


C. Page 15. . 

The following is a general account of the size of the Isle of 
Man and its population at different periods. 

The centre of the island is in latitude 54° 15' north, and 
longitude 40° 30' west. 

It stretches out in a direction N.E. by N., and S.W. by S. 
from the point of Ayre to the Sound of the Calf, distant from 
each other 33^ miles. 

Its greatest breadth at right angles to this direction, from 
Banks’ Howe to Ballanayre, north of Peel, is 12j miles. 

The shortest distances from the surrounding countries are,— 

From the Calf of Man to Ardglass in Ireland, N.W. \ N., 
31 miles. 



APPENDIX C. 


281 


From Peel to Lough Strangford, N.W. by W., 27 miles. 

From Point of Ayre to Burrow Head, N.N.E., 16 miles. 

From Maughold to Whitehaven, E. \ N., 31 miles. 

From the Calf of Man to Holyhead, S.S.W., 45 miles. 

The number of statute acres in the island amounts to rather 
more than 130,000, but in consequence of the many indenta¬ 
tions and irregularities, it is impossible to calculate closely 
without a very accurate survey, which has not as yet been 
made. 

The total amount of enclosed and cultivated lands paying 
tithe is 89,458 acres; the unappropriated Crown lands reach to 


30,788 acres, of which— 

The northern mountains contain .... 19,898 

Southern ditto. 8,495 

The Ayre of Kirk Bride. 1,668 

The Ayre of Andreas. 727 


The lands belonging to the Crown are subject to a right pos¬ 
sessed by the public to turn sheep out on them, cut turf, and 
preserve highways, turbaries and watercourses. We may safely 
allow 10,000 acres for the remaining uncultivated and untithed 
lands, rocks, waters, and islands; thus bringing the amount 
of surface to an approximate total of 130,246 acres. 

The following table of the heights of the mountains is taken 
from Dr. Berger’s report in the first volume of the Transac¬ 
tions of the Geological Society of London. They were ob¬ 


tained by the barometer. 

Feet. 

North Barrule . 1850 

South Barrule . 1545 

Bein-y-Phot . 1750 

Brada Head (highest point). 767 

Bushel’s House (highest point on the Calf Islet) . 461 

Corrin’s Tower (on the Horse-hill Peel). 675 

Cronck-Irey-na-Lhaa. 1445 

Douglas Head . 315 

Douglas Howe . 466 

Greebah (highest point) . 1355 














282 


APPENDIX C. 


Feet. 

Ganaglian. 1520 

Maughold Head. 475 

Mount Murray. 742 

Sartyl. 1560 

Slieauwhallin (highest point) . 978 

Slieau Hearn. 1533 

Slieau Dhoo. 1215 

Slieau-y-Carnaane. 900 

Sneafell. 2000 

Spanish Head . 350 

Santon Head (low point) . 126 

Tynwald Hill. 130 


Watershed, between Port Erin and Port St. Mary . 82 

Naturally the island is divided into two districts, a south¬ 
eastern and north-western, by the chain of mountains running 
through it. For civil purposes it is divided also into two di¬ 
stricts, a southern and a northern primarily, and these are sub¬ 
divided into six sheadings, and again into seventeen parishes. 
Each district has its Deemster or Judge, each sheading its 
Coroner, and each parish its Captain, Sumner and Moar, i.e . 
collector of Lord’s rent. There is another division of the island 
into the high bailiwicks of Castletown, Douglas, Peel and 
Ramsey. The High Bailiff has jurisdiction in causes under 40s. 
old Manx currency, equal to £1 14s. 2>\d. British. 

The following Table of the population is derived in chief 
part from Quayle’s * Agriculture of the Isle of Man/ with the 
addition of the census in 1821, 1831, and 1841. 














APPENDIX C 


283 


Population. 

Increase 

since 

1726. 

CjOlOO^^COhhXiOIN COiO'tH'^OCOHCO 

h^c^wcocoxwxcoco oo^ooiocoiowr^ 

<Nr-» <M HNW HHC^ rH rH rH rH rH 

o 

O 

CO • 
CO 

• 

rH 

00 

H 

lOCOtOC^CilNNCiXO^X OO^^COMXOO 

CCXHN'OlM'tXMCJCOO fOXOlMiOCO<DHN 

OOQ^OOt^r-HOkOCOCOrHl.^ WOHCOHfOOiOCO 

CO <N h CO WX(Nhh(N w C1 h(M(NhWhhh 

47,986 

1831. 

XOIhOJXNOWOhMO COh^nOjNNON 

N^OHCOCKNNQOHOOlCi (N^tOtOCOHCiHH 

NOtONNQjNTtC^NNH ClCONOOOlO^CO 

W W H r-HCDrHrHr-H»-HC^I r-HrHrHC4rHClrHrHrH 

41,758 

1821. 

CiOiOXO^^NHOClH O^COCiHOXNN 

^COiOOOkOLOLOO^OCO —ICVJOOC^OOC^ 

^O^OXNO^WXCiO XtOiOWO<NH^^ 

Ol <M rH rHOi-Hr—li—ti-HC4 rHrHr-HC<li-HOJ*-Hi-HrH 

rH 

00 

o 

o 

1792. 

CO CO O OJ to O iO CO 00 t>» rHQOkOCOiOCO 

CO ^ Ci h C*> ^ O nO O O (N w LO r -1 o 

CO H lO O o GO iO r-H ^ o iO l>* O O 

CO rH rH lO CM H Ol r-H r-H r-H pH 

27,923 

• 

CO 

rH 

HXOlHClTfOOH T}H CVJ CiCi^OWONnO 

COr-HrHiOCOr-HiOO^ *>* lO HKCiXlOOCONX 

XCOCi^iOiNXOX ^ ^ (NOXO^CO^XCS 

rH rH rH rH OJ rH rH rH rH rH 

24,924 

1757. 

OiOlonnht^tpxoo’^ cr^C5C<irHcrii>*i'^co^o 

^OhXOOOJhcOiOOIOlO oococooiocowc^ 

^CJNOiOhX^OOXCJ Xt>*X^?OO^l>»X 

n r-H rH rH rH r-H rH 

19,144 

1726. 

OOrHCO^OOOOCiO^OkO NOO 0<NNCO«DCO 

CiXOHNXHNC'-HN 1 ^ TfOJOOrHOCOO^ 

OOt^^GCCO^COCO^k0^t«t>* iOiO'^CO^OCi’fXO 

r-H 

14,066 

Patron Saints. 

St. Lupus . 

St.Cairbre. 

Holy Trinity ... 

St. Anne. 

St. Brandon ... 

St. Concha. 

St. Marown ... 
St. German. 

St. Patrick. 

St. Lomanus. 

St. Maughold... 

Holy Trinity ... 

St. Bridget. 

St. Andrew. 

St. Patrick. 

St. Mary. 

Michael . 

Total . 

Chief towns. 

Castletown... 

Douglas. 

Peel . 

Ramsey . 

Parishes. 

Malew . 

Arhory . 

Rushen . 

Santon . 

Braddan. 

Onchan . 

Marown. 

German . 

Patrick . 

Lonan. 

Maughold ... 

Lezavre . 

Bride. 

Andreas. 

Jurby. 

Ballaugh. 

Michael . 

Sheadings. 

V._A__ A _ J K _ A _ A _ ) 


Rushen ...« 

Middle ,...< 

Glenfaba... < 

Garff .•< 

Ayre . \ 

Michael ...* 

Districts. 

Y Y 

•luaqinog •uiaq^joj^ 


























































































284 


APPENDIX D. 


D. Page 45. 

Act of Settlement. 

After Goddard Crovan had conquered the Isle of Man, he 
divided it between his followers (those who chose to remain 
with him) and the natives, on the terms that none should ven¬ 
ture to claim their holdings as hereditary property, but look 
upon themselves merely as tenants at will of the king. This 
tenure was afterwards known by the term “ tenure of a straw.’’ 

The Stanley family, by the charter granted to Sir John 
Stanley, were vested with all the rights belonging to any former 
king in the fullest manner. In the time of James seventh earl 
of Derby, the people became alarmed on the subject of their 
holdings, and were 'prevailed on to enter into an agreement 
with the Earl to deliver up their property into his hands, and 
receive them again on leases for three lives. In order the 
more readily to induce them to this, one of the Deemsters 
took the lead in the surrender of his lands, having entered at 
the same time into a private arrangement with the Lord, by 
which he shortly after obtained an Act of Tynwald reinstating 
him in his possessions. 

A spirit of great dissatisfaction (as might naturally be ex¬ 
pected) was consequent throughout the Isle, and this appears 
to have increased more and more as the lives of the different 
leases dropped in. Agriculture was in consequence greatly 
neglected, and the island was in a very languishing and de¬ 
pressed state when James the tenth Earl of Derby became Lord 
of Man in 1702. 

In the year 1703, however, owing chiefly to the great interest 
of Bishop Wilson with the Earl of Derby, and his earnest 
representations to him of the state of the island, an Act -was 
obtained which has well been designated the Manx Magna 
Charta. 

The Act of Settlement is the name given to “ An Act for 
the perfect settleing and confirming of the Estates, Tenures, 
Fines, Rents, Suits and Services of the Tennants of the Right 


APPENDIX E. 


285 


Honorable James Earl of Derby within this Isle of Man.” It 
was drawn up and received the approbation of the Twenty-four 
Keys and the Council, February 4th, 1703, and being after¬ 
wards approved of by the Earl of Derby, received his signature 
September 6th of the same year. On the 6th of June 1704 it 
was proclained on Tynwald Hill, according to form and custom, 
and thus became the settled law of the land. Of the part 
taken by Bishop Wilson in procuring it, we find the following 
memorandum amongst his papers :— 

“Sept. 6, 1703.—Blessed be God for his favours. On this 
day I was, I hope, an happy instrument in bringing the Lord of 
Man and his people to an agreement; his Lordship having 
this day condescended to settle them upon a certain tenure, or 
rather to restore them to their ancient tenure, which has been 
uncertain for more than one hundred years. What the con¬ 
sequence may be I know not; but this I know, that I have 
acted uprightly in this whole affair, which God be praised 
for!” 


E. Page 50. 

In the year 1839, the Crown, the Bishop and the Clergy, 
agreed to commute the several tithes payable to them for the 
annual payment of £5575, and since that time the payments 
have been regulated according to the average price of corn, 
ascertained according to the prices of barley, wheat, and oats 
during the seven years preceding each and every payment; and 
thereby the annual payments are liable to be increased or dimi¬ 
nished accordingly. The proportions were regulated by Act of 
Tynwald. 


286 


APPENDIX E. 




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APPENDIX E. 


287 


From the above table it will be perceived that the sum of 
£b 575, for which the tithes were commuted, arises from the 
two sums of ,£5489 5s. 10the value of the tithe, and 
£85 14^. 1 j d., arising from prescriptive payments. It is 


disposed of as under :— 

£ s. d. 

Sum paid to the incumbents of parishes. 3292 12 0 

The Lord Bishop . 1515 0 0 

The Crown. 525 0 0 

Chaplain of St. Jude’s in Andreas. 101 0 0 

Trustees of Clergy Widows’ Fund. 141 8 0 


Total. £5575 0 0 


All the livings are in the gift of the Crown, excepting Brad- 
dan, Patrick, German and Jurhy, which are in the gift of the 
Bishop. There are also glebe lands attached to the clerkship 
of several of the parish churches:—Maughold 29 acres, Andreas 
4 acres, Santon j acre, Lezayre 12 acres, German 7 acres, 
Michael f acre, Ballaugh 3J acres, Jurhy 27 acres 2 roods, 
Bride 1 acre. 

General Goldie is entitled to the tithes and customs payable 
from the Abbey lands of Braddan, which, exclusive of the Nun¬ 
nery estate of eight quarterlands, amount to the annual sum 
of £45. 

Capt. Bacon is entitled to the one-third of the tithes payable 
from several estates in Kirk Santon, and which amount to the 
annual sum of £40. 

George Quirk, Esq. was entitled to the one-third of the tithes 
of Arbory, but he sold them to the proprietors of the different 
properties from which the same were payable. 

A Spittal, Esq. and M. Kelly are entitled to a portion of the 
tithes of Marown, amounting to the annual sum of £17. 

Under authority of an Order in Council from her Majesty 
Queen Victoria, dated December 10th, 1842, of which the ori¬ 
ginal is deposited in the Episcopal Registry, it is f< ordered 
that the several payments now made to the several livings from 
the Royal bounty, shall upon the vacancy of each living cease, 
and the sum or sums thence arising be distributed to such poor 
Clergymen officiating under his license in the said island as 











288 


appendix e. 


shall seem good to the said Bishop. Provided always, that the 
said Bishop shall not deprive the Schoolmasters of such por¬ 
tion of the said grant as they have heretofore received, and shall 
inform the Governor of the island from time to time of such 
alterations as he shall make in the several payments.” 

Under this order three different apportionments have already 
been made, whereby the salaries of the Chaplains of St. Jude’s, 
St. Mark’s, and St. John’s have been increased. 

There are at present 52 elementary schools in the island, in 
which 2750 children are under instruction, being upwards of 
an eighteenth of the entire population. 

It is provided by the Common Law of the island that a 
school shall be built and maintained in substantial repair in 
every parish by assessment upon the inhabitants ; that every 
child of a proper age shall attend the school; that certain chil¬ 
dren shall attend free of any charge, the rate of payment of 
the rest being fixed by law ; and it is forbidden by law that 
any man should exercise the profession of a schoolmaster whose 
qualifications have not been ascertained by a competent autho¬ 
rity, and who has not the license of the Bishop. 

Thus the principle of State education in connection with the 
Church has been fully recognised in the Isle of Man since the 
day when Bishop Wilson procured the enactment of the ‘ Con¬ 
stitutions Ecclesiastical,’ so highly eulogized by Lord Chan¬ 
cellor King. 

Towards the maintenance of the Parish Schools a sum of 
about 36200 is set apart from the Impropriate Fund at the dis¬ 
posal of the Bishop and Archdeacon for Church purposes. 
There is a further sum of 3616 135. applied annually to this 
purpose under the designation of Royal Bounty, and 3639 an¬ 
nually, arising from a bequest of Lady Elizabeth Hastings. 
These sums are distributed amongst the schools in portions ave¬ 
raging about 368 to each school. The remainder of the master’s 
stipend is made up by quarterages paid by the children. See 
Report of the Parochial Schools of the Isle of Man, by the 
Rev. H. Moseley, F.R.S., one of her Majesty’s Inspectors of 
Schools. 1847. 


APPENDIX F. 


289 


F. Page 50. 

The Act of Surrender , made by Reginald to the See of Rome. 

“ Reginaldus Rex Insulae Man, constituit se vasallum sedis 
Romanae, et ex insula sua facit Feudam oblatum, Londini 
10 Cal. Octob r . 1219. 

“ Sanctissimo Patri et Domino Honorio Dei gratia summo 
Pontifici, Reginaldus Rex Insularum commendationem cum 
osculo pedum. 

“ Noverit sancta Paternitas vestra, quod nos, ut participes 
simus honorum quae fiunt in Ecclesia Rom. juxta admoni- 
tionem et exhortationem dilecti patris Domini P. Norvicen. 
electi, Camerarij et Legati vestri, dedimus et obtulimus nomine 
Ecclesiae Roman ae, et vestro, et Catholicorum vestrorum suc- 
cessorum, Insulam nostram de Man, quae ad nos jure haere- 
ditario pertinet, et de qua nulli tenemur aliquid servitium fa- 
vere, et deinceps nos, et haeredes nostri in perpetuum tenebimus 
in feudum dictam Insulam ab Ecclesia Romand, et faciemus ei 
per hoc homagium et fidelitatem, et in recognitionem Domini, 
nomine census, nos et haeredes nostri in perpetuum annuatim 
solvemus Ecclesiae Rom. duodecim Marcas Sterlingorum in 
Anglid apud Abbatiam de Fumes Cistertiensis Ordinis in 
festo Purification^ B. Marice. Et si non esset ibi aliquis ex 
parte vestra vel successorum vestrorum, deponentur dictae duo¬ 
decim Marchae per nos et haeredes nostros penes Abbatem et 
Conventum, Ecclesiae Rom. nomine. Hanc donationem, et ob- 
lationem dictus Dominus Legatus recipit ad voluntatem et 
bene placitum vestrum, et post receptionem factam ab eo sic 
ipse Dominus Legatus dictam Insulam dedit mihi, et haere- 
dibus meis in feudum perpetuo possidendam et tenendam 
nomine Ecclesiae Rom. Et me inde per annulum aureum in- 
vestivit, &c. 

“ Actum Lond. in domo militiae Templi 10 Kal. Octob. 
Anno Dom. Millesimo ducentesimo decimo nono. Et ne super 

o 


290 


APPENDIX G. 


his aliquando possit dubitari, has literas fieri fecimus et sigillo 
nostro muniri. 

“ Codex juris gentium Diplomaticus per Godefridum Guliel- 
mum Liebnitzium, impressus Hanoverse 1693, fol. pag. 5.” 


G. Page 61. 

The following account of James, seventh Earl of Derby, is 
extracted, the former part of it from Dugdale’s sketch of him, 
as given in Peck’s * Desiderata Curiosa,’ vol. ii. p. 436, the latter 
from Coleridge’s ‘Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire.’ 

“ James Stanley, Earl of Derby, was a person highly ac¬ 
complished with learning, prudence, loyalty and true valour; 
whereof none are ignorant. 

“ To pass by the great state wherein he lived whilst this 
realm continued in peace, and his wonderful hospitality, he 
was one of the first who repaired to King Charles I, at York, 
when by reason of the dangerous tumults at Westminster in 
the beginning of the year 1642, his Majesty became necessi¬ 
tated to retire thither. Whence being ordered back into Lan¬ 
cashire, to prepare for the King’s reception, upon a resolution 
taken for setting up the royal standard at Warrington, he 
forthwith mustered the whole county on three heaths near 
Berry, Ormskirk and Preston, where he had an appearance 
of at least 20,000 men at each place : intending the like course 
in Cheshire and North Wales (by virtue of his commission as 
lord-lieutenant in those parts). But in this interim the place 
resolved on for erecting the standard being changed (to the 
great disappointment of the King’s faithful subjects in those 
parts and the no less encouragement of his enemies), it was set 
up at Nottingham. When the countries not coming in so 
freely as was expected, the King by special letters desired his 
Lordship to raise what men he could and hasten to him. 
Whose answer was, that he would do his best; but that the 



APPENDIX G. 


291 


case was then much altered; a great part of the country re¬ 
solving to stand neuters ; and that many others had already 
joined with the rebels and seized upon Manchester. 

“ All this notwithstanding, amongst his own tenants de¬ 
pendants and private friends, he raised three regiments of foot 
and three troops of horse. Which he clothed and armed at 
his own charge, and then posted to the King at Shrewsbury 
for orders how to dispose of them. Whereupon his Majesty 
commanding him to return and forthwith to make trial of one 
smart assault upon Manchester; and then, whether he mastered 
that town or not, to march up to the general camp ; he re¬ 
paired to those his forces; drew up before that town; and 
upon his summons thereof it refusing any treaty, directed an 
assault at four of the clock next morning, with hopes to carry 
it. But that very night receiving commands from the King to 
haste to him in two days’ space, he brought up his regiments 
and troops to his Majesty. Which being disposed of under 
the command of other officers, he was desired to return back 
and take what care he could of the country. Hereupon the 
party then sitting in Parliament in Westminster made offer to 
him of the largest terms imaginable, in case he would come to 
them or quit the King’s service. But to this he answered, 
* When I turn traitor, I may hearken to these propositions ; 
but till then let me have no more of these papers, at the peril 
of him who brings them.’ This being the second time they 
had in that kind attempted him. 

“ By this time the enemy having garrisoned the towns of 
Lancaster and Preston, and in a manner brought the whole 
country under their power, his Lordship set himself to fortify 
his own house at Lathom. And, though his arms and maga¬ 
zine were gone (how, you will hereafter hear), made shift, with 
the assistance of his friends, to cut off three companies of the 
enemy on Houghton Common; as also to take Lancaster and 
Preston by storm. In the former leading on his men himself, 
with a half pike in his hand (after one repulse) to the second 
assault, which did the business. Manchester having, in all 

o 2 


292 


APPENDIX G. 


probability, followed, bad not his auxiliaries and his own forces 
been called away in that very nick of time, when he was ready 
for the attempt. 

“ Soon after this, upon information that the enemy had a 
design upon the Isle of Man, he was ordered thither for the 
defence of that place. And went accordingly, having first 
made some necessary provisions of men, moneys and ammuni¬ 
tion for the protection and defence of his incomparable lady at 
Lathom; to whose charge he committed his children, house, 
and other his English concerns. 

“ During the Earl of Derby’s absence in the Isle of Man, his 
Countess, the Lady Charlotte, being left in this house, the enemy 
looked upon it as their own; expecting little from a woman, 
being a stranger, or that the place being so unprovided (as they 
supposed) any considerable resistance could be made ; so that 
a commission was presently obtained for the reducing it*. 

“ Upon intelligence given to the Earl of these his lady’s dis¬ 
tresses, he hasted out of the Isle of Man to beg relief to his 
Majesty. Whereupon orders were given that Prince Rupert 
should take Lancashire in his way to York, unto which place 
he was then designed. But no sooner did Rigby hear that his 
Highness had entered Lancashire at Stopford Bridge, than he 
raised his siege on the 2 7th of May 1644, and marched to 
Bolton, a strong garrison of the enemy. Where, with the 
addition of other forces to 2000 of his own, he made up a body 
of 2500 foot and 500 horse. Upon notice whereof to the 
Prince, he marched directly thither, and gave orders for an 
assault. Which, though gallantly attempted, succeeded not at 
the first; he therein losing 200 men, the enemy killing all they 
took upon the walls, in cold blood, in his sight. Whereupon a 
second assault being resolved, the Earl of Derby desired to 
have the command of two companies of his old foot, and the 
honour of the forlorn. Which at his importunity being 

* An account of the siege of Lathom House will be found in Bohn’s 
Standard Library. The Countess kept possession for one whole year, till 
relieved by Prince Rupert. 


APPENDIX G. 


293 


granted, and all things ready, the town was carried in the space 
of half an hour, on every side ; he himself being the first man 
to set foot in it, upon the 28th of May. Whereupon Rigby 
made his escape, leaving 2000 of his men behind. 

“ Upon the taking of this rebellious town, Prince Rupert sent 
all the colours to the Countess at Lathom ; and so marched to 
Liverpool for reducing that. Thence he went to Lathom, 
where he staid four or five days; but before his departure 
gave direction for repairing and fortifying the house, and at the 
request of the Countess disposed the governorship thereof to 
Captain Edward Rawsthome, whom he made colonel of a foot 
regiment, and two troops of horse, for its defence. By which 
captain it was stoutly defended for full two years more in a 
second siege, but at last by his Majesty’s order delivered up; 
having cost the enemy no less than 6000 men, and the garri¬ 
son about 400, it being one of the last places in this realm 
which held out for the King. Such was the fate of Lathom 
House.” 

The latter days of this noble Earl are thus detailed by Mr. 
Coleridge. See also Ward’s ‘ Ancient Records, &c. of the Isle 
of Mann,’ p. 162. 

“After the raising of the siege of Lathom House, an. 1644, 
the Earl and his Countess returned together to the Isle of Man. 
For Derby and his consort the following years were years, not 
of peace, but of comparative inaction. Cooped up in their 
dimmutive kingdom, they were honoured as patriarchal princes; 
they bad defiance to the fleets, the threats and the persuasions 
of Parliament. Even when their children, whom they had 
sent into England on the faith of a pass from Fairfax, were de¬ 
tained in captivity by the ruling powers, though repeated offers 
were made to restore them, with the whole of the English 
estates, if the Earl would give up his island; he constantly an¬ 
swered that much as he valued his ancestral lands, and dearly 
as he loved his offspring, he would never redeem either by dis¬ 
loyalty. Nor did they change their resolution even when the 
King, for whom they held their rocks and little fields, was no 


294 


APPENDIX G. 


more, and his son a wandering exile. Angry at solicitations 
which implied an insult to his honour, Derby returned the 
following reply to that fierce republican Ireton, who had urged 
the old proposal with renewed earnestness :— 

“ ‘ I received your letter with indignation, and with scorn I 
return you this answer : that I cannot hut wonder whence you 
should gather any hopes from me, that I should (like you) 
prove treacherous to my Sovereign, since you cannot be insen¬ 
sible of my former actings in his late Majesty’s service ; from 
which principle of loyalty I am no way departed. I scorn 
your proffers ; I disdain your favours ; I abhor your treasons ; 
and am so far from delivering this island to your advantage, 
that I will keep it to the utmost of my power to your destruc¬ 
tion. Take this final answer, and forbear any further solicita¬ 
tions ; for if you trouble me with any more messages upon this 
occasion, I will burn the paper and hang the bearer. 

“ ‘ This is the immutable resolution, and shall be the un¬ 
doubted practice of him, who accounts it the chiefest glory 
to be 

“ ‘ His Majesty’s most loyal and obedient subject, 

“ 4 Derby.’ 

“ 4 Castle Town, 12th July 1649. * 

44 He remained in the Isle till 1651, when the younger 
Charles entered England at the head of a Presbyterian army, 
governed by Presbyterian preachers, with which it was impos¬ 
sible for the English Royalists cordially to cooperate. But 
Derby’s loyalty had no reservations ; his oath of allegiance con¬ 
tained no proviso for the case of a King bringing the Solemn 
League and Covenant along with him. At the request of 
Charles, (who sent him the order of the Garter,) he left the 
island, and landed in Lancashire, to join in as unpromising 
an enterprise as ever threw away good fives. Having sent 
forth trusty emissaries in all directions to announce his arrival, 
and call his cavaliering friends and neighbours from their re¬ 
treats, two or three days after he parted with the King, he 


APPENDIX G. 


295 


fixed his quarters at Wigan, to wait the coming up of the 
musters. But next morning he was unexpectedly attacked by 
a large body of militia and regulars under Lilburn, whom Crom¬ 
well had detached to hang upon the King’s rear and prevent 
the junction of stragglers. 

“ Derby’s ‘band of brothers’ were set upon in an irregular 
street, which enabled them to make a prodigious stand against 
over-running numbers. ‘ Three thousand veterans, practised 
in war’s game,’ were barely sufficient to cut to pieces, and 
trample under foot, 200 loyal English gentlemen. In this 
skirmish the Earl received seven shots in his breastplate, thir¬ 
teen cuts in his beaver, and five or six wounds in his arms and 
shoulders, and had two horses killed under him. Yet his time 
was not yet come. He escaped almost singly, and found his 
way through Shropshire and Staffordshire, to join the King at 
Worcester. 

“ Of the result of the 3rd of September, and the subsequent 
wanderings and escapes of Charles, who in this land of oaks is 
ignorant ? It was Derby that, with cold and bleeding wounds, 
led the King in secrecy to St. Martin’s gate, and directed him to 
the concealments of White-ladies and Boscobel, where he him¬ 
self had found shelter not many days before. He then made 
for his own country, though sick of heart and wounded sore; 
but scarcely had he gained the borders of Cheshire, when he 
was overtaken by a party under Major Edge, to whom he sur¬ 
rendered under a promise of quarter. He was led prisoner to 
Chester. The Parliament sent down a commission of nineteen 
persons, selected from the military, who formed a sort of court- 
martial, styled ‘ a High Court of Justice,’ in order to ‘try the 
Earl of Derby for his treason and rebellion.’ Of course the 
Earl was found guilty, and condemned to die ; but by an un¬ 
necessary aggravation of cruelty, the execution was appointed 
to take place in his own town of Bolton-le-Moors, where a few 
years ago he appeared a conqueror. He was beheaded on 
Wednesday the 15th of October 1651. Two days before he 
wrote a letter to his Countess, which we will give entire :— 


296 


APPENDIX G. 


“ ‘ My dear Heart,—I have heretofore sent you comfortable 
lines, hut, alas! I have now no word of comfort, saving to our 
last and best refuge, which is Almighty God, to whose will we 
must submit; and when we consider how He hath disposed of 
these nations, and the government thereof, we have no more to 
do hut to lay our hands upon our mouths, judging ourselves, 
and acknowledging our sins, joined with others, to have been 
the cause of these miseries, and to call upon Him with tears for 
mercy. 

“ ‘ The Governor of this place, Colonel Duckenfield, is Gene¬ 
ral of the forces, which are now going against the Isle of Mann ; 
and however you might do for the present, in time it would be 
a grievous and troublesome thing to resist, especially those that 
at this hour command the three nations, wherefore my advice 
notwithstanding my great affection to that place, it is that you 
would make conditions for yourself, and children and servants, 
and people there, and such as came over with me, to the end 
you might get to some place of rest, where you may not be 
concerned in war, and taking thought for your poor children, 
you may in some sort provide for them : then prepare yourself 
to come to your friends above, in that blessed place where bliss 
is, and no mingling of opinions/ * * * 

“ Mr. Bagerley, one of the Earl’s gentlemen, who was al¬ 
lowed to attend him to the last, drew up a narrative of his 
dying hours, the manuscript whereof still remains in the fa¬ 
mily :— 

“ Upon Monday, October 13th, 1651, my Lord procured 
me liberty to wait upon him, having been close prisoner ten 
days. He told me the night before, Mr. Slater, Colonel Duck¬ 
enfield’s Chaplain, had been with him from the Governor, to 
persuade his Lordship that they were confident his life was in 
no danger ; but his Lordship told me he heard him patiently, 
but did not believe him ; for, says he, ‘ I was resolved not to 
be deceived with the vain hopes of this fading world.’ After 
we had walked a quarter of an hour, he discoursed his own 
commands to me, in order to my journey to the Isle of Mann, 


APPENDIX G. 297 

as to his consent to my Lady to deliver it on those articles his 
Lordship had signed. 

“ After we were out of the town, the people weeping, my 
Lord, with an humble behaviour and noble courage, about half 
a mile off, took leave of them ; then of my Lady Catherine and 
Amelia upon his knees by the road-side, (alighting for that end 
from his horse,) and there prayed for them, and saluted them, 
and so parted. This was the saddest hour I ever saw, so 
much tenderness and affection on both sides. 

“ That night, Tuesday, the 14th October, we came to Leigh; 
but in the way thither, his Lordship, as we rode along, called 
me to him, and bid me, when I should come into the Isle of 
Mann, to commend him to the Archdeacon there, and tell him 
he well remembered the several discourses that had passed be¬ 
tween them there, concerning death, and the manner of it; 
that he had often said the thoughts of death could not trouble 
him in fight, or with a sword in hand; but he feared it would 
something startle him tamely to submit to a blow on the scaf¬ 
fold. * But,’ said his Lordship, ‘ tell the Archdeacon from me, 
that I do now find in myself an absolute change as to that 
opinion ; for I bless God for it, who hath put this comfort and 
courage into my soul, that I can as willingly now lay down my 
head upon the block as ever I did upon my pillow.’ 

“ Then we went to prayer, and my Lord commanded Mr. 
Greenhaugh to read the Decalogue, and at the end of every 
commandment made his confession, and then received absolu¬ 
tion and the sacrament; after which, and prayers ended, he 
called for pen and ink, and wrote his last speech as follows:— 

“ ‘Now I must die, and am ready to die, I thank my God 
with a good conscience, without any malice, on any ground 
whatever, though others would not find mercy upon me upon 
just and fair grounds: so my Saviour prayed for his enemies, 
and so do I for mine. 

“ ‘ As for my faith and religion, thus much have I at this 
time to say : I profess my faith to be in Jesus Christ, who 
died for me, from whom I look for my salvation, that is 

o 5 


298 


APPENDIX G. 


through Ilis only merit and sufferings. And I die a dutiful 
son of the Church of England, as it was established in my 
late Master’s time and reign, and is yet professed in the Isle of 
Mann, which is no little comfort to me. 

“ ‘ 1 thank my God for the quiet of my conscience at this 
time, and the assurance of those joys that are prepared for 
those that fear Him. Good people, pray for me; I do for 
you ; the God of Heaven bless you all, and send you peace ; 
that God that is truth itself, give you grace, peace and truth. 
Amen.’ 

“ Just before he suffered he calmly requested that the block 
might be removed so as to face the Church, saying, ‘ I will 
look towards thy sanctuary while here as I hope to live in thy 
heavenly sanctuary for ever hereafter.’ 

“ So he laid himself down with his neck to the block, and 
his arms stretched out, saying,— 

“ ‘ Blessed be God’s glorious name for ever and ever. Amen. 
Let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen.’ 

“ And then, lifting up his hands, the executioner did his 
work, and no manner of noise was then heard but sighs and 
sobs.” 

After her husband’s death the Countess of Derby still held 
out her domain of Mann, ruling it with a broken fortune, 
broken heart, but unbroken spirit, till those Christians, to 
whom the Earl at his leave-taking had committed the care of 
his wife and children, and of the Island forces, betrayed it to 
the Government. Then was the Countess for a time a captive, 
and afterwards a wanderer, subsisting on such kindness as the 
poor can bestow on the poorer still. At the Restoration the 
estates reverted to her eldest son, and she spent the short 
remnant of her days at Knowsley Park. She died in 1662. 


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CHARLOTTE, = JOHN, Ten other Children 

Baroness Strange, only Child, Third Duke of &thol, who sold 
married to her Cousin. the Isle of Man to the Crown. 






















300 


APPENDIX H. 


H. Page 76. 

The foundation-stone of King'William’s College was laid by 
Lieutenant-Governor Smelt on St. George’s day, April 23, 1830. 
The building, which stands at the head of Castletown Bay, is 
of mixed early English and Elizabethan character. It extends 
S.E. by E. and N.W. by W. 210 feet. The transept at 
right angles to this direction in the centre of the building, in¬ 
cluding the Tower and Chapel, is 135 feet. The Tower, placed 
between the Chapel and the rest of the building, rises to a 
height of 115 feet from the ground. The original design, fur¬ 
nished by Messrs. Hansom and Welsh, included an octagonal 
turret on the summit of the Tower intended as an observatory, 
hut it was abandoned in the erection. The contract for the 
building by the late Mr. Fitzsimons was 366000. The Chapel 
(not yet consecrated) was built by Bishop Ward out of moneys 
collected in England for building churches on the island. The 
building is now divided into seven fire-proof compartments, 
separated by strong party-walls rising above the roof, and com¬ 
municating through cast-iron doors, the passages being flagged 
with stone. It contains, in addition to the Chapel and Tower, 
the residences of the Principal and Vice-Principal, the Library, 
and four Class-rooms. 

The fund accumulated by the Trustees from the rents of 
the Ballagilley and Hango Hill estate, amounted in 1830 to 
362071 10s. Through the exertions of Bishop Ward, a sub¬ 
scription-list, nobly headed by himself with £ 100, produced 
nearly £2692 more, and the College estate was mortgaged by 
Act of Tynwald for another 362000. A sum of 3650 per annum 
is set apart from the proceeds of the trust for the gradual pay¬ 
ing off this incumbrance. The building cost £6572 18s. The 
College lands, originally held under lease at 3620 per annum, 
were let in 1769 for a term of thirty-one years at the annual 
rental of 36100. Again in 1800 they were re-let at £341 15s. 
per annum ; in 1826 they obtained a further advance to a rental 
of 36489 Is. per annum; and lastly in 1842 they were let at 


APPENDIX H. 


301 


about £520 per annum. The Principal receives from this 
estate the same salary as was formerly given to the Academic 
Master. The salaries of the other masters (except a portion 
of that of the Vice-Principal, and £15 paid to the English 
master from a bequest of the late Mrs. Quilliam) are paid out 
of the tuition-fees of the students. 

The remainder of the proceeds of the trust is expended in 
exhibitions to Manx students to the Universities of Great Bri¬ 
tain, in the payment of interest upon the borrowed capital of 
.£2000, in the reserved fund for the liquidation of this debt, 
and on improvements of the College estate. 

The Manx Exhibitioners to Oxford, Cambridge, or Trinity 
College, Dublin (of whom there are at this present three), are 
bound by the terms of Bishop Barrow’s will to return and 
serve in the Manx Church upon the call of the Bishop, or to 
refund the sum advanced to them for their education out of 
the trust. 

The Trustees of the College are His Excellency the Lieut.- 
Governor, the Lord Bishop, the Clerk of the Rolls, the Attorney- 
General, the senior Deemster and the Archdeacon. 

The educational arrangements of the College are after the 
original plan of Llampeter in South Wales, combining a gram¬ 
mar-school, with a higher department for students for holy 
orders. The ordinary course embraces the Greek and Latin 
classics, Hebrew, with Greek, Latin and English composition, 
history and geography, the mathematics, with mensuration, 
fortification and navigation. The modern languages and 
drawing are optional. The course of religious instruction is 
according to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of 
England. The tuition-fees vary, according to age, from £4 
to £10 per annum. The board 30 guineas. The masters are 
voluntarily educating gratuitously 22 boys, of whom the greater 
portion are sons of the native Manx clergy. 

The first Principal was the Rev. E. Wilson, M.A., of St. 
John’s College, Cambridge, who was succeeded by the Rev. A. 
Phillips, D.D., of Jesus College, Cambridge. He was sue- 


302 


APPENDIX H. 


ceeded by the Rev. R. Dixon, M.A., of St. Catherine Hall, 
Cambridge, in 1841, who had previously been Vice-Prineipal 
from the opening of the College. The original library of the 
College was removed from the grammar-school, Castletown, in 
the principalship of the Rev. E. Wilson. It belonged to the 
Academic School. It contained several volumes given by 
Bishop Wilson, many of them containing his autograph and 
motto, “ Tuta et Parvula.” It was increased by many bene¬ 
factors ; amongst them Lord de Grey gave Bishop Ward 5220 
to be laid out in books; Captain Willis of Castletown and 
R. Quayle, Esq. made valuable presents, and the British and 
Foreign Bible Society gave a selection of their versions. But 
the most liberal donor was Bishop Short, who presented a 
valuable collection of Hebrew books, works of Greek and Latin 
criticism, the Delphin Classics in 141 volumes, Stephens* 
Greek Thesaurus, 8 vols. fol. ; Facciolati’s Latin Lexicon, 4 
vols. fol.; Critici Sacri, 9 vols. fol.; works of Johnson, Ro¬ 
bertson, Burnet, Clarendon, Strype, Grindal, Whitgift and 
Parker, &c. Very many of these books formed a part of the 
library of the late Dr. Ireland, Dean of Westminster, his Lord¬ 
ship’s uncle. 

Between two and three o’clock of the morning of January 
14th, 1844, a fire broke out in the dining-hall of the Principal, 
in the western wing of the College ; its origin has never been 
discovered. Owing to the circumstance of the entire roof of 
the building being connected throughout, and two wainscoted 
and floored corridors running from end to end, the flames 
spread with fearful rapidity, and in a very short time consumed 
(with the exception of the greater part of the Vice-Principal’s 
residence) the entire building, tower and chapel. There was 
a great destruction of property. The library was all but 
wholly consumed. Most providentially no accident of life 
or limb occurred, though the inmates of the College numbered 
nearly 100. The Principal was fully insured, but the College 
only to the amount of <£2000, a very inadequate sum. Bishop 
Short drew up a circular, asking for pecuniary aid, and head- 


APPENDIX H. 


303 


ing the subscription-list with .£300. The call was handsomely 
responded to, and £1871 10s. was raised. The cost of re¬ 
building amounted to £3791 16s. 4c?. 

The rebuilding and refitting the College after the fire was 
undertaken voluntarily and gratuitously by J. Timperley, Esq., 
Civil Engineer, to whose assiduous attentions, energy and per¬ 
severance, the rapid restoration of the building is to be ascribed. 
Sufficient progress was made to enable the members of the 
College and their friends to meet for the annual distribution 
of prizes in the large class-room on the 4th of June of the 
same year. The College Library has already in part been re¬ 
stored by donations of books from various sources. 

The University of Oxford, through the interest of Bishop 
Short, made a most munificent donation of a choice selection 
of 344 volumes, printed at the Clarendon press, handsomely 
bound. Bishop Short has also himself largely contributed to 
the new library, and has obtained presents from his friends. 
The Rev. W. P. Ward, son of Bishop Ward, formerly of this 
diocese, contributed several valuable works. The Parker So¬ 
ciety replaced the works published by them which had been 
burnt, and the British and Foreign Bible Society more than 
replaced their original gift of selected versions of the Holy 
Scriptures. The University of Cambridge presented several 
volumes, printed at the Pitt press. Mrs. Shirley, widow of 
Bishop Shirley, presented, at Bishop Shirley’s request, 63 
volumes ; being a complete series of the Latin Fathers. 

The most liberal of all the recent benefactors to the College 
was the late Mrs. Quilliam, relict of Capt. Quilliam, R.N., of 
Ballakeign, near Castletown. She gave two separate sums of 
£100 to the building and rebuilding the College, the commu¬ 
nion-plate, value nearly £100, and a pair of silver candlesticks 
for the Holy Table. She left by will the sum of £300, the 
interest to be applied to assist towards the salary of a master 
to teach navigation and other useful sciences. She also by the 
same will left to the Masters of King William’s College the 


304 


APPENDIX H. 


reversion of the estate of Orrisdale, in the parish of Malew, 
valued at about £ 130 per annum; which estate has fallen in 
by the death of her niece, Mrs. Gunton. The validity of the 
bequest having been disputed by the heir-at-law,—by an action 
at Common Law, December 7th, 1847, a verdict has at this 
time been given in favour of the College claim. 

The Act of Mortmain not applying to the Isle of Man, be¬ 
quests of landed property may at any time be made to corpo¬ 
rate bodies as well as to private individuals. 

A Museum for the reception of objects of natural history 
has been commenced, and has received some valuable donations. 
Lectures on Natural Philosophy are periodically delivered at 
the College. A payment of 2s. 6d. per quarter is made by 
the students towards the purchase of philosophical apparatus, 
and the augmentation of the library and Museum. Prizes of 
books are open for competition on various subjects. 

His Excellency Lieutenant-Governor Ready gave £5 per 
annum for the encouragement of English poetry and mathe¬ 
matics, which has been continued by His Excellency the 
Hon. Charles Hope. 

Bishop Ward gave 5 guineas (continued by his successors) 
for a Latin and an English Theological Essay. 

James Clarke, Esq., Attorney-General of the Isle of Man, 
and Recorder of Liverpool, gave £5 per annum for the en¬ 
couragement of English composition; continued by Charles 
Ogden, Esq. 

The Venerable Archdeacon Philpot gave prizes of books for 
the encouragement of Greek and Latin verse. Archdeacons 
Hall and Moore have continued a donation of two guineas and 
a half to the same object. 

Francis Lace, Esq., of Ingthorpe Grange, Skipton, York¬ 
shire, gives <£10 per annum for the encouragement of Hebrew, 
a knowledge of the Greek Testament, and English history. 

The following documents, taken from the Chancery records 
of the Isle of Man, will be found interesting in connection with 


APPENDIX I. 


305 


the building of King William’s College.—Chancery Records, 
1673 

“ Whereas there is a full accord between the Bishop of 
St. Asaph and the Isle of Man concerning the profits belong¬ 
ing to the Bishopric of the Island from the time of its va¬ 
cancy, and all disputes and differences between them about 
any concerns in the island being concluded; And whereas it 
is agreed between them, with my consent and approbation, 
that the whole profits for the year 1671 shall be placed in the 
hands of William Banks of Winstanley in the county of Lan¬ 
caster, Esq., till we can meet with convenient purchase for the 
erection of a public school for academic learning: These are to 
require you to collect the profits aforesaid, and all charges 
necessary for the collection being deducted, to return the 
money by the first opportunity, that it may be fixed and em¬ 
ployed according to the agreement between us. 


“ Given under my hand at Knowsley the 8th June 1672. 


“ Derby.” 


“ To the Deputy-Governor of my 
Isle of Man. 


(c 


In presence of 


{ 


Isaac. Asaph. 

Henric. Sodorensis.” 


In the Chancery Book, 1675, there is a deed of sale from 
Charles Moore to Bishop Bridgeman, by which it appears that 
in that year the Bishop purchased the Abbey of Rushen from 
Charles Moore, with the intention of erecting the Academic 
School there ; hut having been unable to accomplish this 
through want of funds, the property was subsequently restored 
to the said Charles Moore. 


I. Page 113. 

The analysis by Dr. Kemp, for the purpose of determining 
the per-centage of lime in the marls of the north and south of 



306 


APPENDIX K. 


the island, gave for a sample taken from Kirk Bride parish, 
near Point Cranstal, only 5*145 per cent, of lime, whilst a 
sample from Hango Hill, near King William’s College, yielded 
about 24*5 per cent. A sample taken at Ronaldsway, near 
Derby Haven, a little to the westward of the basset edge of 
the old red sandstone, gave 6*75 per cent., and the same was 
very nearly the proportion of a mass from Strandhall, where 
the limestone beds a little to the eastward are greatly altered 
and crystalline in consequence of the intrusion and overlying 
of masses of trap. 

These facts indicate the extremely local character of the 
contents of great part of the boulder clay ; and show also that 
the great use of the marl in the north of the island is to give 
consistency to the sandy soil, rather than to supply it with a 
proper quantity of lime, of which 20 per cent, should be added 
to make it a good manure. 

K. Page 176. 

Mining Operations on the Isle of Man. 

Evidences of mining operations carried on at a very early 
date have been noticed at Brada Head, in the south of the Isle 
of Man. 

A level appears to have been driven in just above high-water 
mark in the north-western face of the headland, reaching about 
200 yards. By means of a shaft sunk from above this level 
about 12 yards higher up and inclining inwards, and also by 
means of other shafts sunk below the level, a considerable 
quantity of ore (sulphuret of lead) was obtained. The level 
was wrought through the vein, which was very irregular, in 
some parts 40 feet high by 6 feet broad, in others little or no 
ore appeared. Its quality seems to have been but indifferent. 
Some wedges of a description in use before the introduction 
of gunpowder into mining, called feather-wedges, have been 
found in the mine, and the general appearance of the work 
bespeaks remote antiquity; history and even tradition are 


APPENDIX K. 


307 


silent by whom and at what period these operations were 
commenced. It is stated in Chaloner’s ‘Caledonia’ (vol. iii. 
p. 372) that John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, obtained from 
Edward I. a license to dig for lead in the Calf of Man to cover 
eight towers of his Castle of Cruggleton in Galloway. In the 
course of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, the 
noble family of Stanley appear to have sought for copper in the 
same neighbourhood: traces of their labours remain. The ore 
discovered, though not abundant, was rich in quality, producing 
six pennyweights of copper per ounce of ore. The vitriolic 
character of some springs of water in that neighbourhood is 
noted in Sacheverell’s ‘Account’ 150 years ago, and in the 
Statute-Book of the Isle of Man various notices of mining 
operations occur under the dates a.d. 1422, 1613, 1618, 1630. 
See ‘ General View of the Agriculture of the Isle of Man, &c.’ 
by Thomas Quayle, Esq., 1812.' 

The neighbourhood of Laxey seems to have attracted atten¬ 
tion about the beginning of the present century. Mr. Wood 
was the first to draw up any particular account of the mine. 
Writing in 1811 he says that a level had been begun about 
thirty years previously, but not regularly worked, being much 
incommoded with water. The vein wrought consisted of 
common brown blende, lead glance, and occasionally green 
carbonate of copper in a matrix chiefly of quartz; small por¬ 
tions of phosphate and of carbonate of lead were interspersed. 
He also states that his information was, that the galena was so 
rich in silver as to produce on assay 180 oz. to the ton. The 
blende was for some time neglected, but latterly more attention 
has been paid to its working and dressing, and it has obtained 
a good price in the market. At a later period a second level 
was driven into the hill about a quarter of a mile further 
down the stream and about 5 fathoms below the level of the 
former excavation, for the purpose of drainage. The workings, 
extending 200 yards into the heart of the mountain, were not 
at first very productive. The number of hands employed in 
1811 was only three at the time of Mr. Wood’s visit. A new 


308 


APPENDIX K. 


company having been formed for working the minerals in that 
neighbourhood on a more extensive scale, has been amply re¬ 
warded. When I visited the mine last summer, I obtained the 
following notes from inspection and information on the spot:— 

The mine (situated at a distance of about one and a half 
mile from the sea up the Laxey valley) consists of the grand 
day adit driven in the north-eastern face of the hill just above 
the level of the stream, which flows along the bottom of the 
valley. This adit runs N. 15°E. magnetic 400 fathoms into 
the heart of the mountain. At 200 fathoms met with pro¬ 
ductive ore. At this point it is met by the engine shaft at 23 
fathoms from the surface. A second shaft meets this adit at 
about 180 fathoms from its entrance. From this adit down¬ 
wards various shafts are sunk upon the vein, and connected by 
galleries at 20, 30, 35, 45, 50, 60, 70, 80, 100, 110, 120, 130 
fathoms below it, the last being about the total depth of the 
then workings below the level of the day adit. At that depth 
the width of the vein was 16 feet, the vein hading to the east 
magnetic one foot in a fathom out of the perpendicular; it is 
pursued on the strike to the north. 

The number of men employed was 300, raising 60 tons of 
lead per month at ^620 10s. per ton, 200 tons of black jack 
mixed with the lead worth £2 10s. per ton, and 5 tons of 
copper averaging £5 per ton. 

Both water and steam power is used; the radius of the water¬ 
wheel at the lower shaft is 17 yards. 

The Foxdale mining ground has however hitherto proved 
the most productive on the island, the proximity of the granite 
of South Barrule having very beneficially affected the mineral 
riches of that neighbourhood. By analogy we may well con¬ 
clude that the workings of the Laxey mine are likely to become 
more valuable as they are carried in the direction of the Dhoon 
granite. The Foxdale district extended across the northern 
side of South Barrule, from Glen Bushen nearly eastward, or 
rather to N. of E., which is the general strike of the productive 
veins on the island. 


APPENDIX K. 


309 


The present company was formed in 1823. They purchased 
from Michael Knott, Esq., who was lessee under the late 
Duke of Athol. 

The chief workings at that time were upon what is generally 
termed the Foxdale vein to the northward of the great granitic 
boss, crossed by elvans striking out from the nucleus of the 
granite. Very little except horse and water power had been 
employed, though there were at that time two small steam- 
engines also at work, and the depth reached was never more 
than 40 fathoms. The great workings are now carried on at 
the eastern and western extremities of the district, at Cornelly 
or Jones vein in the neighbourhood of Kenna, and at the 
Beckwith vein in Glen Rushen. The Cronck Vane (White-hill) 
mine, more in the centre of the district, on the brow of the hill 
betwixt Sleauwhallin and South Barrule, a few years ago was 
worked with very great results. The miners appear to have 
fallen in with one of those great sops or masses of ore which 
I have noticed in the body of this work as generally charac¬ 
teristic of limestone districts, but which appears as a peculiar 
feature of this schistose country also. 

At the time of my visit, in company with Professor Ansted, 
three years ago, the depth attained into the body of ore was 
88 fathoms, the width of the vein or mass at its centre being 
24 feet, thinning off to the E. and W. to about 4 feet. The 
length of this body of productive ore was 14 fathoms. The 
vein had generally a southerly dip, the walls being very clean, 
and presenting in several places extensive appearances of 
slickenside. There is very little gossan upon these veins, and 
not in general any indication of their presence till the workman 
comes directly upon the body of lead. The prediction of 
Professor Ansted at that time, respecting the duration of the 
working at the Cronck Vane mine, seems to have been fully 
verified, as I found on my last visit to the place the works 
abandoned. 

The number of men and boys employed at the mines of this 
company in different parts of the district is generally about 


310 


APPENDIX K. 


350, and the average raising of ore for the last ten years has 
been about 2400 tons per annum. The product gives about 70 
per cent, for lead, and 9 oz. silver per ton. 

The steam power now employed is very extensive and on 
the newest principle. 

The Ellersley mine on the Bishop’s Barony is wrought by a 
different company. It is situated to the eastward of the last- 
mentioned district, about five miles from Douglas. It appears 
to have been commenced on a very thin even vein, consisting 
of a narrow thread of ore in veinstone, the outcrop being visible 
at the surface in a small burn running from the ridge betwixt 
Foxdale and Mount Murray. Considering the extremely rapid 
and extensive variations in thickness and value observable in 
the continuation of the vein westwards, it was not unreason¬ 
able to hope that the result might be favourable in this spot, 
notwithstanding that the distance from the granite or other 
apparent change of ground was unsatisfactory. 

It appears that, in accordance with the more usual conditions, 
this latter indication was but too accurate, and the vein which 
has been pursued from its outcrop upwards of 300 fathoms, at 
a depth of from 6 to 10 fathoms presents such a striking 
uniformity as greatly to discourage further working. At one 
or two points cross courses have been met with, but they do 
not affect the value of the vein. 

Copper does not appear to have been wrought to any great 
extent on the island. I discovered a small vein about two 
years ago in the south of the Calf Islet, as also one at Port 
Erin. There is a Copper Mining Company in Maughold 
parish, hut hitherto they have not succeeded in raising ore for 
the market. The iron mines however in that parish are of a 
very promising character. For a long period back small 
parcels of that ore had been wrought in several places. In 
the year 1836 a company was formed, and procured a lease 
from the Crown for twenty-one years. They opened a vein 
known by the name of the ‘ Glebe Vein,’ not far to the west¬ 
ward of Maughold Church, which proved productive and was 


APPENDIX L. 


311 


partially wrought for a few years. Latterly William Dixon, 
Esq., of Glasgow having become sole lessee, the mines during 
the last three years have been more closely followed up, and 
have produced an average shipment of about 500 tons per 
month, fetching in the market 16s. per ton when pig iron is 
£3 per ton. By a return from F. C. Skrimshire, Esq., Agent 
for the Woods and Forests, I find that in the year 1846 a 
royalty of £232 was paid from this mine. About seventy men 
are employed in connection with these works. 

The quarries of stone and marble are not wrought extensively 
on the island. They have paid latterly a royalty averaging 
not more than £90 per annum. By the insular laws every 
person standing in need of limestone or building stone may 
enter on his neighbour’s land and dig and carry away what is 
requisite for his own use, paying the occupier a reasonable 
satisfaction, which appears to be interpreted merely surface 
damage. 


L. Page 187. 

The Herring Fishery. 

The herring fishery has always formed such an important 
branch of the Isle of Man commerce, that a brief notice of it 
seems necessary in the present work. In the year 1827 a 
Committee of the House of Keys inquired into and reported 
on the subject of the herring fishery to the following effect:— 
“ It would appear that, contrary to the generally received 
opinion, a shoal or shoals of herrings enter St. George’s 
Channel from the south in the month of May, when the fishery 
commences near Arklow on the coast of Ireland, and that the 
progress of the fish to the northward is slow, Arklow, Ardglass, 
and the Isle of Man being the successive fishing-grounds 
frequented by the Cornish boats ; that the body of fish seldom 
reaches the Isle of Man before the middle of June or later; 
that two coral-banks situated to the E. and W. of the island, 
and chiefly the former, would seem to be the ultimate annual 


312 


APPENDIX L. 


destination of this shoal or shoals, these spots being uniformly 
frequented by them for the purpose of therein depositing their 
spawn; that after the completion of this process, in the months 
of October and November, these shoals again return southward 
with greater expedition than they had advanced, and furnish 
a second or winter fishing at Arklow in November. The 
separate facts connecting this course of migration seem to be 
distinctly shown in the evidence, and an Arklow fisherman 
states the very conclusive circumstance, that in the summer 
fishery the herrings always mesh with their heads to the 
north, and in the winter with their heads to the south, or in 
other words, that in summer they are caught to the south of 
the net, and in the winter to the north of it.” 

An Account of the Number of Boats belonging to the Isle of 
Man , whether decked or undecked , that have beem employed 
in the year ended bth January 1846 in the Herring , Cod , 
Ling, and In-shore Fisheries. 

Number of boats, whether decked or undecked . . 606 

Number of fishermen and boys by whom 

the said boats were manned . . . .3,813 

Number of coopers employed .... 13 

Number of persons employed in packing . 186 

Number of labourers employed .... 54 

Total number of persons employed-4,066 

Number of fish-curers. 86 

Tonnage of boats employed in the herring, cod, and 

ling fisheries. 5,145 

Square yards of netting used in the herring fisheries 3,608,064 
Yards of long lines and buoy ropes used in the 

fisheries. 386,400 

£ 

Value of boats employed in the fisheries . . . 63,945 

Value of nets employed in the fisheries . . . 18,792 

Value of lines employed in the fisheries . . . 690 

Total value of boats, nets, and lines, employed 
in the fisheries. 83,427 








APPENDIX L. 


313 


Of the above 606 boats there are 278 yawls that follow the 
in- shore fishing, the tonnage and value of which have not been 
ascertained. 

283 boats follow the cod, herring and ling fisheries; 45 
smacks run fresh and bulk fish to Liverpool and other parts 
in the Channel; 606 belong to the Isle of Man, and are manned 
by 3813 men ; 278 yawls follow the in-shore fisheries. 

There are about 

50 Irish vessels running fish to Liverpool, 


6 men each. 300 men 

45 Welsh and English, 4 men each . . . 180 

200 Irish fishing-boats, 8 men each . . . 1600 

200 English fishing-boats, 8 men each . . 1600 

495 vessels employing. 3680 men 


employed on the cbast of the island during the fishing season 
and consequently frequenting its harbours, in addition to the 
606 vessels above-mentioned. Total, 1101 vessels manned by 
7493 men. 

The harbours on the west coast of the island will not accom¬ 
modate half the above, neither Peel nor Port St. Mary can 
contain a quarter of the above vessels, and it is certain that 
the deficiency of harbour-accommodation prevents the exten¬ 
sion of the fisheries ; the risk of life and property being great 
even where there is harbour-room for the vessels, but much 
greater where there is a deficiency, and that to so great an 
extent as to prevent parties embarking capital. 

30,352 barrels of herrings were cured in the above year, but 
in the preceding year about 60,000 barrels were cured, and each 
barrel is allowed to contain 800 herrings; average price paid to 
the fishermen is about 4s. per hundred, or 32s. per barrel, fresh. 

The usual quantity allowed for the consumption of the 
island when well-supplied is about 10,000 barrels. When there 
is a medium fishing, the value of the herring, cod and ling 
fisheries, together with the ifi-shore fishery, fluctuates between 
^660,000 and ,£80,000 per annum. 

The returns exhibited in the following page are independent 
of the number of vessels passing in the night-time, and those 
visiting the island direct from England. 

p 




Number of Vessels observed to pass Point of Ay re Lighthouse during the year 1847. 


314 


APPENDIX L 


Total. 

HHC5»OO^OC1 r—( ^ o 

^OCOHOitNCC^ CTi ^ o 

^(NOOiOOiGOGO COCO 00 

ID 

Steam vessels. 

CO 

C 

3 

O 

O 

* 1 

CO 04 CO • GO CO ^ ^ 04 • • O! 

• • t 

H 1 

r-t ;OJCOCO^^COGOiOH(N 

* 1 

NWiOfNCO^tOCO^OOHO 

HWW^KN^CO^NHOJH 

• 

fc 

HOONOaOJiNONCO^ w 

OlHHCOOlCO^^HHfMH 

N o. 

Vessels.: 

W CJNifl WWiCOhOOh 
^^^O^O iGOCiOCO^CO 

679 

Sloops. 

Course. 

■ - - i 

* 1 

OHOi^CCNClCOCOfOCN 

iO<McOl>*^XtNlN.^OJWCO 

H 

owiococnocoocjooTf 

lOHCOtOfOOOXHMOH* 

cc 

Tf XOOtOHiOGiOfC^N 
WHOtfJCONkONCONCOH 

fc 

O^CJ^OiOOcOiMHCOO) 

(NHTf^OJOLOCCOOlCOOl 

No. of 

Vessels. 

iOlOOhhOONlO^NO)N 
lG?O^CO^r-i^C'. W05HIN 

rH rH 04 rH CO 04 04 r-H rH rH 

2097 

Brigs and Schooners. 

Course. 

• 

i* 

OO^O^H^cOC4NOiOO 

iOW^lNGOHHHO^CO^ 

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APPENDIX M. 


315 


M. Page 199. 

An inquiry into the language anciently spoken by the Celtic 
race shows that, as respects the British Isles at least, it divides 
itself into two great dialects, which for convenience we may 
term Cambrian and Gaelic, taking as types the Cymraeg as 
spoken in Wales and the Gaelic as spoken in the Highlands 
and islands of Scotland. A closer examination gives a still 
further division, and as varieties or subdialects of the former 
(the Welsh) we notice the old Cornish, which died out rather 
more than a century ago, and the Armorican or language of 
Bretagne, spoken by the lower classes of the present day* ; 
as varieties of the latter (the Gaelic) we mark the Erse or 
ancient Irish and the Manx. Thus the Manx, the Gaelic and 
the Erse are sufficiently alike to enable a person speaking 
any one to understand the other two. This is not the case 
between the Manx and the Welsh, though they have some 
words in common or only slightly differing. The Manx is 
spoken generally in the mountain districts of the Isle of Man, 
and in the north-western parishes. There are however few 
persons (perhaps none of the young) who know no English. 
Its orthography does not appear to have been fixed on any sure 
principle, nor was it printed till just at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, when Bishop Wilson caused to be printed a 
small tract in Manx and English entitled ‘ The Principles and 
Duties of Christianity.’ 

Except one or two popular ballads, the earliest of which 
seems to have been composed in the sixteenth century f, there 

* The same dialect was spoken anciently in Cumberland, where a branch 
of the Cymry maintained their ground till the close of the eighth century. 
The Cymry clearly derive their name as being Cimhri, Cimmerii or 
Gomerii, the offspring of Gomer. So German again is simply Gomerian 
f It is entitled “ Mannanan Beg mac y Lheirr; ny, slane coontey jeh 
Elian Vannin.” It commences with an account of Mannanan the necro¬ 
mancer, and the conversion of the Isle by St. Patrick, and terminates with 
the landing of Thomas, second Earl of Derby, in 1507. It w as probably 
composed about 1510. See Train's History, vol. i. p. 50. 

r2 


316 


APPENDIX M. 


is no native literature to reward the study of it. No dictionary 
has been published of English into Manx, but there is a very 
useful and copious dictionary of Manx into English by Mr. 
Archibald Cregeen, printed in Douglas in 1835, which contains 
also some introductory remarks which will be found serviceable 
in the examination. Dr. Kelly compiled a grammar* of the 
language, but the copies are very scarce. He also compiled a 
dictionary, of which a corrected copy went to press, but perished 
by fire together with the printing-office. 

The following notice f of some of the peculiarities of the 
language and the mutations of letters I have chiefly compiled 
from Mr. Cregeen’s work and Kelly’s Grammar. 

The Manx possesses a plural article ny (the), as ny deiney 
(the men), ny claghyn (the stones) ; y and yn are the singular. 

The adjective is placed after the substantive, as booa ghoo 
(a cow black), a black cow ; magher mooar (a field big), i. e. a 
big field. 

They say dhaa ghooiney, two man ; feed dooiney , twenty 
man ; dhaa-eed dooiney , forty man ; not two men twenty men, 
&c.; yet they say tree deiney , three men; kiare deiney , four 
men, &c. 


* “ A Practical Grammar of the Antient Gaelc, or Language of the Isle 
of Mann, usually called Manks.” By the Rev. John Kelly, M.A., Vicar of 
Ardleigh, &c. Quarto, London, 1804. 

t This must only be regarded as a very imperfect notice. There are a 
great many exceptions to the rules which I have stated. 

+ We may well consider this as a dual. 

The numerals are:— 


1. Unnane {unity), or un before 

substantives. 

2. Jees {both), or dhaa before a 

substantive. 

3. Troor {trine), obsolete; tree 

in common use. 

4. Kiare. 

5. Queig. 

6. Shey. 

7. Shiaght. 

8. Hoght. 


9. Nuy. 

10. Jeih. 

11. Unnane-jeig. 

12. Dhaa-yeig, &c. &c. 

20. Feed {a score). 

21. Unnane-as-feed. 

30. Jeih-as-feed. 

31. Unnane-jeig-as-feed. 
40. Dhaa-eed or dhaeed. 
60. Tree-feed. 


APPENDIX M. 


317 


The substantives are all masculine or feminine, none neuter. 

The adjective has also a plural, as dooiney mooar, a big man ; 
deiney mooarey , big men. 

The alphabet consists of the following letters:—a, b, c, d, 
e >f> 9> h, i, j, k, l , m, n, o, p, q, r, s, sh , si , t, u, v, w, y. Of 
these c, d, y, l , m, p and t admitting an aspirate become ch, 
dh, gh , Ih, mh, ph and th ; sh and si are considered as double 
consonants, since they have a change peculiar to themselves. 

Table of Mutable Consonants with their changes. 


bea, life; e vea, his life; nyn mea, our life. 
carrey, a friend ; e charrey, his friend ; nyn garrey, 
our friend. 

chiarn, a lord; e liiarn, his lord; nyn jiarn, our lord. 
keyrey, a sheep; e cheyrey, his sheep; nyn geyrey, our 
sheep. 

foays, advantage; e oays, his advantage; nyn voays, 
our advantage. 

pooar, power; e phooar, his power; nyn booar, our 
power. 

phreeney, a pin; ereeney, his pin; nyn vreeney, our 
pin*. 

quing, a yoke; e whing, his yoke; nyn guing, our yoke. 
sooill, an eye; e hooill, his eye; nyn tooill, our eye. 
shenn ghooiney, an old man ; e henn ghooiney, his old 
man; yn chenn ghooiney, the old man. 
slat, a rod; e lhat, his rod; yn clat, the rod. 
towse, a measure; e howse, his measure; nyn dhowse, 
our measure. 

I have termed the second and third columns aspirates and 
gutturals from their prevailing characters. The f and ph when 
aspirated pass at once into a mere breathing or are quiescent, 
as the old Greek digamma. The following consonants admit 
but one change :— 


Radical. 

Aspirate. 


d 

gh 

dooiney, a man; e ghooiney, his man. 

g 

gh 

geay, wind; e gheay, his wind. 

j 

m 

y 

Jee, God; e Yee, his God. 

V 

movrn, pride; e voyrn, his pride. 


* This instance is given in Kelly’s Grammar, but it is of rare occurrence. 


Radical. 

| Aspirate. 

Guttural. 

b 

V 

m 

c 

ch 

g 

ch 

li 

j 

k 

ch 

g 

f 

qui¬ 

escent. 

v 

P 

Ph 

b 

Ph 

qui¬ 

escent. 

v 

q 

wh 

g 

s 

h 

t 

sh 

h 

ch 

si 

lh 

cl 

t 

h 

dh 











318 


APPENDIX M. 


It is to be observed that a labial is never changed to a den¬ 
tal, nor a dental to a labial. 

The changes of these initial letters are made either for the 
sake of euphony, or they are indicative of gender, government, 
declension, &c. Thus words of the feminine gender change 
the initial of their following adjective: as dooiney bane, a fair 
man ; ben vane, a fair woman. 

When two substantives come together belonging to different 
things, the latter if masculine, and the article y or yn precede 
it, changes its initial into the aspirate * ; if feminine, the article 
ny instead of yn is used in the genitive without any change of 
the initial letter. 

If an adjective f be placed before its substantive, the initial 
of the substantive is changed into its aspirate: as drogh-yhooiney , 
a bad man ; shenn ven , an old woman. 

The plural of nouns is generally formed by the terminations 
yn, ghyn or aghyn added to the singular, and sometimes by the 
change of vowels : as mac, a son; mec, sons : fer, a man ; fir, 
men : keeill, a church ; kialteenyn, churches. 

The pronouns personal are mee or ym%, I; oo, thou ; eh, he; 
ee, she ; shin, main or mayd, we ; shiu, ye ; ad, they. These 
are placed after the verbs with which they are joined. 

The root of the verb seems to be the imperative mood. The 
different tenses present and past are formed by means of auxi¬ 
liary verbs, and the participles, the future and aorist (answering 
to the English perfect by inflection) by certain changes in the 
initial letter and by postfixes. 

The auxiliary verbs are dy ve, to be ; dy vod, to be able. 

In interrogative sentences the Manx use vel instead of ta 

* Words beginning with d,j, t, of the mutable consonants are excepted. 

f The adjectives so placed are drogh , bad; shenn , old ; also glare , short; 
and lhag, loose (English slack ?). 

£ I have put down ym as one form of the nominative, though it is not 
*n use by itself. It appears however in the genitive aym , i. e. ec-ym (of 
me), and the compounds foym ( fo-ym ), under me; aynyrn ( ayns-ym ), in 
me; rhym ( rish-ym ), to me, &c.; and in the first person of the future tense 
of verbs as a pronominal affix, as in caillee ym (I shall lose). 


APPENDIX M. 


319 


(am, &c.) : as ta me (I am), vel me (am I ?) ; ta shin (we are), 

tel shin (are we ?). 

The following is the conjugation of the verb cly ve, to be. 

INDICATIVE MOOD.-PRESENT TENSE. 

Sine;. Ta mee, I am ; ta oo or t’ou, thou art; t’eh or ta eh, 
he is ; t’ee, she is. 

Plur. Ta shin, we are; ta shiu, ye are; t’ad, they are. 

PRETERIMPERFECT. 

Sing. Va mee, I was; v’ou, thou wast; v’eli, he was ; v’ee, 
she was. 

Plur. Ya shin, we were; va shiu, ye were; v’ad, they were. 

PRETERPERFECT. 

Sing. Ta mee er ve, I have been ; t’ou er ve, thou hast been ; 
t’eh er ve, he has been ; t’ee er ve, she has been. 

Plur. Ta shin er ve, we have been; ta shiu er ve, ye have 
been ; t’ad er ve, they have been. 

PRETERPLUPERFECT. 

Sing. Va me er ve, I had been ; v’ou er ve, thou hadst been ; 
v’eh er ve, he had been. 

Plur. Va shin er ve, we had been ; va shiu er ve, ye had 
been ; v’ad er ve, they had been. 

FUTURE. 

Sing. Bee’m, I shall be; bee oo, thou shalt be ; bee eh, he 
shall be ; bee ee, she shall be. 

Plur. Bee mayd, we shall be ; bee shiu, ye shall be; bee ad, 
they shall be. 

IMPERATIVE MOOD. 

Bee, be thou. Bee-jee, be ye. 

SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.-PRESENT TENSE. 

Sing. (My) vee’m, {if) I be; (My) vees oo, {if) thou be, &c. 

Plur. (My) vees mayd, {if) we be; (my) vees shiu, {if) ye be, 

&c. 


320 


APPENDIX M. 


• PRETERIMPERFECT. 

Sing. Veign, I might be; veagli oo, thou miglitst be; veagh 
eh, he might be. 

Plur. Veagh shin, we might be; veagh shiu, ye might be; 
veagh ad, they might be. 

PRETERPERFECT AND PRETERPLUPERFECT. 

Veign er ve, I might have been , &c. 

INFINITIVE MOOD. 

Present. Dy ve, to be. 

PARTICIPLES. 

Present. Wanting. Preterit. Er ve, having been. 

Future. Er-chee ve, about to be. 

Row, was, is also an auxiliary of the past tense, but used 
also in supplications for the future : as, Shee dy row marin! 
May peace be with us ! 

The following is an example of a regular verb :— 

Dy choayl, to lose ; from the root caill, lose thou. 

INDICATIVE MOOD.-PRESENT TENSE. 

Sing. Ta mee coayl, I am losing , &c. 

Plur. Ta shin coayl, we are losing , &c. 

IMPERFECT. 

Sing. Va mee coayl, I was losing, &c. 

Plur. Va shin coayl, we were losing , &c. 

AORIST. 

Sing. Chaill me, I lost, &c. 

Plur. Chaill shin, we lost, &c. 

PRETERPERFECT. 

Sing. Ta mee er choayll, I have lost, &c. 

PRETERPLUPERFECT. 

Sing. Va mee er choayll, I had lost, &c. 


APPENDIX M. 


321 


FUTURE. 

Sing. Caillee-ym, I shall lose ; caillee oo, thou shalt lose, &c. 
Plur. Caillee mayd ershin, we shall lose ; caillee shiu, ye shall 
lose , &c. 

IMPERATIVE MOOD. 

Caill, lose thou. Caill-jee, lose ye. 

The Subjunctive Mood may be formed through the auxiliary 
foddym, I may be able : thus,— 

PRESENT TENSE. 

Sing. Foddym coayll, I may lose ; foddee oo coayll, thou 
mayst lose, &c. 

Or, more regularly, after the adverbs dy, that ; my, if: 
thus,— 

Sing. (My) gaillyn, (if) I may lose ; (my) gaill oo, (if) thou 
mayst lose. 

PRETERIMPERFECT. 

Sing. Yinnyn coayl, I might lose ; yinnagh oo coayl, thou 
mightst lose. 

AORIST. 

Sing. Chaillin, I would lose; chaillagh oo,- thou wouldst lose, 
&c. 

PRETERPERFECT AND PRETERPLUPERFECT. 

Sing. Yeign-er-choayl, I had or might have lost, &c. 

INFINITIVE MOOD. 

Present. Dy choayl, to lose. 

Participle present. Coayl, losing. — Preterit. Er choayl, 
having lost. — Future. Er chee coayl, about losing: 
—Supine. Caillit, lost. 

The passive voice is formed by the auxiliary verb dy ve and 
the supine : as, Ta me caillit, I am lost, &c. 

The following copy of the Lord’s Prayer in Manx, with an 

p 5 


322 


APPENDIX N. 


interlined English version, will give an idea of the structure of 
the language:— 

Ayr ain t’ ayns niau, Casherick dy row dt’ Ennym. Dy jig 
Father our who art in heaven , Holy (may) be thy name. Come 
dty reeriaght. Dt’ aigney dy row jeant er* y thalloo myr te 
thy kingdom. Thy will be done on the earth as it is 
ayns niau. Cur dooin nyn arran jiu as gagli laa. As 
in heaven. Give to us our bread today and every day. And 
leih dooin nyn loghtyn myr ta shin leih dauesyn ta 

forgive to us our trespasses as are we forgive to those are 

jannoo loghtyn nyn ’oi. As ny leeid shin ayns 

committing trespasses us against. And not lead us into 

miolagh; agh livrey shin veih oik. Son lhiats y reeriaght, 

temptation j but deliver us from evil. For thine the kingdom 

as y phooar as y gliloyr, son dy bragh as dy bragh. Amen. 

and the power and the glory, for the ever and the ever. Amen. 


N. Page 204. 

The life of Bishop Thomas Wilson is given at full length in 
the editions of his works by Crutwell. There is also an able 
biography of him by the late Rev. Hugh Stowell, Rector of 
Ballaugh, and another by the Rev. Richard Hone. From the 
former the following is a brief abstract:— 

Thomas Wilson was born at Burton in Cheshire, on the 
20th December 1663, of “honest parents fearing God,” as he 
himself says. His father, who died in 1702, was descended 
from a family which from time immemorial had lived in that 
neighbourhood ; his mother was sister to Dr. Sherlock, Dean of 
Chichester. His early education he received from Mr. Harper, 
a schoolmaster of Chester, with whom he continued till his 
admission into Trinity College, Dublin, in 1680. It was his 
intention originally to study medicine, but having contracted 
an intimacy with Archdeacon Hewetson, that pious dignitary 
perceiving his serious and earnest disposition, and his peculiar 
fitness for the ministerial office, prevailed on him to turn 
his attention to divinity studies, which he did, and on St. 
Peter’s day, 1686, he was ordained deacon by Dr. Morton, 


APPENDIX N. 


323 


Bishop of Kildare, on the day of the consecration of the ca¬ 
thedral church of Kildare, when he, in conjunction with Arch¬ 
deacon Hewetson, presented at the offertory a small silver 
paten for the service of the holy table. It is to Archdeacon 
Hewetson’s friendship and early counsel we must in great part 
attribute that high tone of Church feeling which pervaded all 
the after-acts of his life as well as the writings which he has 
left behind him. In a memorandum-book kept by Bishop 
Wilson, we find at the commencement of it, written in the 
Archdeacon’s own hand, a short notice of the ordination of his 
dear young friend, “ with some advices thereupon.” Amongst 
them the following memoranda will sufficiently point out the 
sentiments of their author upon Church order and discipline:— 

“ To say morning and evening prayer, either publickly or 
privately, every day, is the Church’s express command in one 
of the rubricks before the calendar.” 

“ In church to behave always very reverently, nor ever to 
turn the back upon the altar in service-time, nor on the mi¬ 
ll nister when it can be avoided; to stand at the Lessons and 
Epistle, as well as at the Gospel, and especially when a Psalm 
is sung; to bow reverently at the name of Jesus whenever 
it is mentioned in any of the Church’s offices ; to turn to¬ 
wards the east when the Gloria Patri and the Creeds are re¬ 
hearsing ; and to make obeisance at coming into and going 
out of the church, and at going up to and coming down from 
the altar ; are all antient, commendable and devout usages, and 
which thousands of good people of our Church practise at this 
day.” 

Archdeacon Hewetson continued to correspond with and to 
advise Mr. Wilson till 1704. On the 10th of December 1686 
he was licensed to the curacy of New-Church, in the parish of 
Winwick, Lancashire, of which his uncle, Dr. Sherlock, was 
rector, on a stipend of <s£30 per annum ; and on 20th October 
1689 he was ordained priest. Three years afterwards he was 
appointed domestic chaplain to William ninth Earl of Derby, 
and tutor to his son James Lord Strange, afterwards tenth and 


324 


APPENDIX N. 


last Earl connected with the Isle of Man. Mr. Wilson took 
great pains with his noble pupil, whose principal faults were 
want of consideration and a precipitancy of temper. The fol¬ 
lowing extraordinary instance of his management on a parti¬ 
cular occasion is a proof at once of his upright character and 
faithfulness. One day as Lord Strange was going to set his 
name to a paper which he had not read, Mr. Wilson dropped 
some burning sealing-wax on his finger ; the sudden pain made 
him very angry, but his tutor soon pacified him by observing 
that he did it in order to impress a lasting remembrance on his 
mind never to sign or seal any paper he had not first read and 
attentively examined. 

In the year 1697 the Earl of Derby offered him the Bishop¬ 
ric of the Isle of Man, which had been vacant since the death 
of Dr. Baptiste Levinz, who died in 1693. This kind offer 
Mr. Wilson modestly declined, alleging that he was unequal 
to as well as unworthy of so great a charge. Dr. Sharp, Arch¬ 
bishop of York, afterwards complaining to King William that 
a bishop was wanting in his province to fill the see of Man, 
and the King urging the matter with the Earl of Derby, and 
threatening to fill up the vacancy himself, the Earl insisted on 
his chaplain accepting the preferment, and thus was he, to use 
his own expression, “ forced into the Bishopric.” On the 
15th January 1697-8, Mr.Wilson, being first created D.C.L. 
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was confirmed Bishop of 
•Man at Bow Church by Dr. Oxenden, Dean of the Arches, 
and the next day consecrated at the Savoy by Dr. Sharp, Arch¬ 
bishop of York, assisted by the Bishops of Chester and Nor¬ 
wich. On April 5th following he landed at Derby Haven in 
the Isle of Man, and on the 11th was enthroned in the ca¬ 
thedral of St. German, within Peel Castle. The value of the 
Bishopric at that time did not exceed <=€300 in money, and 
when he arrived at it he found his palace in a most ruinous 
condition, nothing in fact remaining of it entire but an old 
chapel and tower. Yet with extraordinary economy he ma¬ 
naged to lay aside from his income enough to build, first of all 


APPENDIX N. 


325 


a new church at Castletown, of which he laid the foundation 
in 1698, and next by degrees to put his palace and demesne 
into order, which last, according to a private memorandum, 
cost him upwards of £ 1400. In compensation for the con¬ 
dition in which he found his residence, and from a conviction 
of his worthiness, the Earl of Derby offered to him the living 
of Baddesworth to hold in commendam , but this he most con¬ 
scientiously and nobly refused as utterly inconsistent with his 
duty. He married in 1698 Mary, daughter of Thomas Patten, 
Esq., by whom he had four children, two boys and two girls, 
only one of whom, the youngest (Thomas), grew up to man’s 
estate. 

The life of this good Bishop was a forcible illustration of 
that declaration of Scripture, “ The path of the just is as a 
shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day.” 
The character given of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, very faith¬ 
fully tallies with his :—“ Faith and love and native simplicity 
appear to have been possessed by him when an early convert. 
He saw with pity the poor of the flock, and he knew no method 
so proper of employing the unrighteous mammon as in relieving 
their distress. His looks had the due mixture of gravity and 
cheerfulness, so that it was doubtful whether he was more 
worthy of love or reverence ; his dress also was correspondent 
to his looks. He had renounced the secular pomp to which 
his rank had entitled him ; yet he avoided affected penury.” 
Bishop Wilson’s liberality was such, that it was said by a gen¬ 
tleman who knew him well, that “ he kept beggars from every 
body’s door but his own.” The following anecdote is to the 
same purport. He had ordered a cloak to be made by his 
tailor, giving him directions that it should be quite plain, with 
merely a button and a loop to fasten it. “ But, my lord,” said 
the tailor, “ what would become of the poor button-makers and 
their families, if every one thought in that way ? They would 
be starved outright.” “ Do you say so, John ?” replied the 
good Bishop ; “ why then button it all over, John.” 

He was most unceasing in the discharge of the duties of his 


326 


APPENDIX N« 


episcopate, and laborious in preaching throughout the diocese. 
He very frequently on Sunday rode out to distant parishes 
without giving the clergy any warning, doing duty and return¬ 
ing to Bishop’s Court to dinner, and this even after he was 
eighty years of age, and on horseback. In his private diary 
we find under date 1712, “ I supplied the vacant vicarage of 
Kirk Arbory for one year, and applied the income towards build¬ 
ing a new vicarage-house ; with this and what I begged, and two 
pounds ten shillings I gave myself, and the assistance of the 
parish, we have erected one of the best houses in the diocese.” 

On comparing his discourses with the generality of those 
preached in England during the period in which he lived, we 
cannot but be struck with their clear and full development 
of Evangelical truth. And yet there has been perhaps no 
prelate more deeply impressed with a sense of the dignity and 
importance of the episcopal office, or more jealous of any in¬ 
fringement upon the authority committed to him in the Church 
of God. In these points he was ready to suffer as for righ¬ 
teousness’ sake, and he did suffer: his imprisonment in Castle 
Rushen is well known. It was entirely upon a matter of Church 
discipline, and on a subject greatly affecting the independence 
and purity of the Church of this Isle. 

A* doubt has sometimes been expressed as to whether the 
• Canons of the English Church which received in the year 1603 
the sanction of the clergy of the province of Canterbury, and 
were afterwards enjoined upon the whole Church by the King, 
are actually binding upon the clergy of the province of York, 
who did not assent to them. It is agreed that they are not bind¬ 
ing upon the laity in either province, as they did not receive the 
sanction of Parliament. The Isle of Man is in the province of 
York, and the proctors for the clergy are summoned with the 
rest of the bishops and clergy of that province to Convocation. 
Now as even the English Acts of Parliament do not apply to the 
Isle of Man, nor is the Act of Uniformity (as such) binding here, 
there being no record of its adoption by the Insular legislature, 
and the approbation and signature of the Lord of the Isle, a still 


APPENDIX- N. 


327 


stronger doubt may be raised upon the question of the validity 
of the English Canon law in this diocese. The Manx Church 
has always had its own peculiar and independent Canon law, 
and has been governed by it; and as respects the last of those 
enacted, drawn up by Bishop Wilson, there is no doubt of their 
being now binding equally upon clergy and laity. They are 
in fact Statute law, having been passed in the insular Convo¬ 
cation of the Clergy and in the House of Keys, confirmed by 
the Earl of Derby as Lord of the Isle, and published accord¬ 
ingly at the Tynwald Hill, June 6th, 1704. 

Lord Chancellor King was so much pleased with these Con¬ 
stitutions, that he said, “If the ancient discipline of the Church 
were lost, it might be found in all its purity in the Isle of 
Man.” Amongst these Canons, the fifth runs thus :—“ For 
the more effectual discouragement of vice, if any person shall 
incur the censures of the Church, and having done penance, 
shall afterwards incur the same censures, he shall not be ad¬ 
mitted to do penance again (as has been formerly accustomed) 
until the Church be fully satisfied of his sincere repentance; 
during which time he shall not presume to come within the 
church, but be obliged to stand in a decent manner at the 
church door every Sunday and holiday the whole time of 
morning and evening service, until by his penitent behaviour 
and other instances of sober living, he deserve and procure a 
certificate from the minister, churchwardens and some of the 
soberest men of the parish to the satisfaction of the Ordinary; 
which if he do not deserve and procure within three months, 
the Church shall proceed to excommunication ; and that during 
these proceedings the Governor shall be applied to not to per¬ 
mit him to leave the island.” 

In Bishop Wilson’s History of the Isle of Man, the follow¬ 
ing passage occurs :—“ There is one very wholesome branch of 
Church discipline, the want of which in many other places is 
the occasion that infinite disorders go unpunished; viz. the 
injoining offenders purgation by their own oaths and the oaths 
of compurgators (if need be) of known reputation, and a severe 


328 


APPENDIX N. 


penalty is laid upon any that shall after this revive the scan¬ 
dal.” Mrs. Horne, wife of Captain Horne, Governor of the 
Isle of Man in the year 1729, accused Mrs. Puller, a widow 
lady of fair character, of improper intimacy with Sir James 
Pool, and Archdeacon Horrobin, the Government Chaplain, 
upon this accusation debarred Mrs. Puller from the Holy Com¬ 
munion. She had recourse to the above mode pointed out by 
the constitution of the Church to prove her innocence, and she 
and Sir James Pool took the oath before the Bishop, with com¬ 
purgators of the best character. No evidence being produced 
of their guilt, they were by the Bishop cleared of the charge, 
and Mrs. Horne sentenced to ask pardon of the parties whom 
she had so unjustly traduced. This she refused to do, and 
treated the Bishop and his authority, as well as the ecclesiastical 
constitution of the island, with contempt. She was conse¬ 
quently put under censure, and banished from the Lord’s Sup¬ 
per till atonement should be made. In defiance of this censure 
the Archdeacon received her at the Communion, and was in 
consequence suspended by the Bishop. The Archdeacon, in¬ 
stead of appealing to his Metropolitan, the Archbishop of York, 
the only legal judge to whom the appeal could be made, threw 
himself on the civil power, and the Governor fined the Bishop 
a850, and his two Vicars-general, who had been officially con¬ 
cerned in the suspension, j 620 each. This fine they all re¬ 
fused to pay as arbitrary and unjust; on which the Governor 
sent a party of soldiers, and they were on 29th June 1722 com¬ 
mitted to the prison of Castle Rushen, where they were closely 
confined, and no persons admitted within the walls to see or 
converse with them. The Governor would not even permit 
the Bishop’s housekeeper, Mrs. Heywood, the daughter of a 
former governor, to see him, or any of his servants to attend 
him in his confinement. From the dampness of the prison, 
the good Bishop contracted a disorder in his right-hand, which 
disabled him from the free use of his fingers, and he ever after 
wrote with his whole hand grasping the pen. He was con¬ 
fined in this prison for two months, but released at the end of 


APPENDIX N. 


329 


that time by petition to the King; and on the 4th July 1724, 
the King in council reversed all the proceedings of the officers 
of the island, declaring them to be oppressive, arbitrary and 
unjust. The expenses of his trial were very great, and it is said 
that when his lawyers’ bills were paid, little indeed remained 
to him or his son. The King offered him the Bishopric of 
Exeter to reimburse him, but he could not be prevailed on to 
quit his own diocese, nor would he prosecute the Governor to 
recover damages, though urged so to do. He had established 
the discipline of the Church, and he sincerely and charitably 
forgave his persecutors. The concern of the people was so 
great when they heard of his imprisonment, that they assem¬ 
bled in crowds, and it was with difficulty they were restrained 
from pulling down the Governor’s house by the mild behaviour 
and persuasion of the Bishop, who was permitted to speak to 
them only through a grated window, or from the walls of the 
Castle, whence he blessed and exhorted hundreds of them 
daily, telling them that he meant to appeal to Caesar. 

The attachment between the Bishop and his flock was mu¬ 
tual, and so well known, that in the year 1735, when attending 
a levee of Queen Caroline, where there were several prelates in 
attendance, she turned round, and said, “ See here, my lords, 
is a bishop who does not come for a translation.” “ No indeed, 
please your Majesty,” replied the good Bishop, “ I will not 
leave my wife in my old age because she is poor.” He had 
before this been offered English bishoprics by Queen Anne and 
George I. 

He seems to have had an instinctive dread of the evils likely 
to befall his diocese from the introduction of novel practices by 
innovating clergymen of the English Church. 

In the year 1740 an application was made to the Bishop 
for leave to raise a subscription for a Sunday evening lecture 
at Douglas, to be preached by a clergyman lately come from 
England. His Lordship refused his assent, and his reasons 
for so doing are expressed in a letter to one of his clergy who 
made the application, commencing thus : “ Your scheme, as you 


330 


APPENDIX N. 


call it, if suffered to take place, would be attended with more 
evil consequences than I have now time to mention, or, I hope, 
than what you have thought of; otherwise you would sure 
have consulted your Bishop before you would have suffered it 
so much as to have been spoken of; because, where people 
have taken a thing in their heads, right or wrong, they will be 
apt to lay the blame on those that oppose them, and reflect 
upon their judgement, discretion and piety; which I expect 
will be the consequence because I will not run headlong into 
your schemes, which would, in a great measure, set aside the 
express duties of catechising bound upon us by laws, rubricks 
and canons, which if performed as they should be, with 
seriousness and pains in explaining the several parts of the 
Catechism, would be of more use to the souls both of the 
learned and ignorant than the very best sermon out of the 
pulpit. This, I say, after a serious, plain and practical sermon 
in the morning by a minister of Jesus Christ who preaches by 
his pious life and example, as you say that gentleman doth, 
and I believe it, will answer all the ends of instruction without 
an afternoon sermon, which being a novelty in this diocese, may 
be attended with unforeseen mischiefs, which you yourself may 
have reason to repent of, and the rest of your brethren have 
reason to blame you for, if I should be so weak as to comply 
with your inconsiderate project,” &c. &c. 

The language of Bishop Wilson on this occasion, though 
severe, may be regarded as in a measure prophetic. English 
practices have so far been adopted, that public catechising, 
except on particular occasions, has ceased in this diocese. The 
present Bishop of St. Asaph, when Bishop of Man, laboured 
by exhortation and example to restore it, but met with little 
success or encouragement. 

Bishop Wilson’s earnestness on this subject was continued 
to the close of his life; indeed in one of his latest Charges to 
Convocation, delivered when he was 84 years of age, he ex¬ 
pressly says, “ In every one almost of our yearly meetings on 
this day, I have taken occasion of insisting, more or less, upon 


APPENDIX N. 331 

the duty and the necessity of catechising in the Church, bound 
upon us as strictly as laws and canons and conscience can 
oblige any minister of God.” 

Bishop Wilson, though most sensitively alive to everything 
within the Church which seemed to infringe upon his authority 
and its ancient order and discipline, was most liberal in his 
sentiments towards those without. His biographer informs us 
that “ he was so great a friend to toleration that the Papists 
who resided in the island loved and esteemed him, and not un- 
frequently attended his sermons and prayers. The Dissenters 
too attended even the Communion Service, as he had allowed 
them a liberty to sit or stand; which however they did not 
make use of, but behaved in the same manner with those of 
the Established Church. A few Quakers who resided on the 
island visited, loved, and respected him.” 

He did not interfere in temporal or political concerns, unless 
when called upon at the request of the inhabitants to serve 
them on particular occasions. Such an occasion was that 
when he gained for the people from the Earl of Derby their 
Magna Charta, the Act of Settlement. Again, in the year 
1740, a year of great scarcity and famine and pestilence on 
the island, the Bishop distributed all his own corn and bought 
up what he could at a very high price, selling it out to the 
poor at a low; and when all the corn of the island was well 
nigh exhausted, he engaged his son to make interest with his 
Majesty, by which an order in council was obtained, taking off 
the embargo for a certain time upon corn imported into the 
Isle of Man. 

He established a fund for the support of clergymen’s widows 
at the suggestion of his son in 1730. The money collected by 
him and placed in the English funds amounted at that time to 
£12 per annum. Afterwards the thirds of the living of Kirk 
Michael were purchased and made over to trustees for the use 
of that charity for ever, and at the present time, from the com¬ 
muted tithes of the island, £1 41 per annum is paid as its 
equivalent. 


332 


APPENDIX N. 


His early medical studies he turned to great account, and 
practised as a physician, bodily as well as spiritually, to the 
poor of the island. He kept a constant store of medicines, 
which he distributed as well as his advice gratis. His private 
papers note almost annually the gift of sums of money for the 
erection of churches, parsonages and school-houses, in his own 
diocese and elsewhere. He always kept an open, hospitable 
table covered with the produce of his own demesnes in a 
plentiful though not extravagant manner, and he maintained 
in his own house, under his own immediate care and instruc¬ 
tion, candidates for holy orders. 

The Bishop held an ordination in the year 1751, and another 
in 1752. In the year 1753 he consecrated a new chapel at 
Ramsey. His death followed two years after. 

The following singular letter I discovered amongst some 
papers of Bishop Wilson in the possession of the Vicar of 
Malew, in the Isle of Man. It is simply the original draft, 
and the name of the person to whom it is written does not 
occur in it, yet from the contents there can be little doubt 
that it was addressed to the Honorable Archibald Campbell, 
one of the Nonjuring Bishops*, who published a work in 1721 
entitled ‘ The Doctrine of a Middle State, &c.,’ also a ‘ Preser¬ 
vative against several of the Errors of the Roman Church.’ 
Bishop Campbell’s own copy of this work, with his MS. notes 
upon it, is in my possession. 

“ Honour’d Sir, 

“I had not the Fav r of y rs upon the middle state and 
against Popery till a bt a month ago; by w t misfortune it came 
no sooner, I cannot yet learn; and hope you have rec d the 
Price of it long before this, I having writ twice to my friend 
to wh m you delivered it, to see you satisfied, w h I hope he has 

* The Honorable Archibald Campbell, after having been long in priest’s 
orders, and after having long resided in London, was on August 25, 1711, 
consecrated a Bishop by the deprived Bishops Rose, Douglas, and Falconer. 
He was elected Bishop of Aberdeen in 1731, which charge he resigned in 
1724. He died June 16, 1744. 


APPENDIX N. 


333 

done. The subject was not altogether new to me ; for besides 
what I could not but observe in my former readings, I had 
seen y r lesser peice soon after it was published. 

“ Whatever objections may be made ag st Perfecting our con¬ 
dition in a future state, and the benefit the members of the 
Church in Paradise may reap from the Prayers of the Church 
on earth, the Doctrine of an Intermediate State is too well 
grounded upon the H. Scriptures to be opposed by any, except 
such as are much prejudiced or unacquainted with that subject. 

“ But as well as a middle state is founded, and y‘ a Regular 
advance to Perfection seemed to be the just consequence of such 
a Doctrine, and altho’ the Primitive Church had their Com¬ 
memorations of, and Prayers for such as died with the seal of 
Faith ; Yet since that Practice was not founded upon the H. 
Scriptures, and the consequence of restoring it at the Reforma¬ 
tion might have been of as bad consequence as it w d have been 
to have continued the Agapse in the Primitive Church which 
were therefore by Her laid aside ; one w d not too severely blame 
our Reformers, who thought it not convenient to continue the 
rep. of Prayers for the dead in the Publick service; especially 
as they have not condemned it in their Articles, but have left it 
to the discretion of every pious member of our commmiion to 
believe and Act in this particular as he thinks fit. 

“ And indeed if that Grand Delusion and dreadful doctrine of 
the Popish Purgatory, if this in all appearance has no better 
effect upon the generality of that communion than to make 
them trust too securely to a deathbed repentance, and as is 
much to be feared has been the ruin of many souls; what 
might be the consequence if our People should come to be 
persuaded that without the terrors of a Purgatorial Fire they 
might thro’ the Prayers of the Church escape the just punish¬ 
ment of their negligence and disobedience, and attain such a 
Perfection as sh d render them acceptable to God at the day of 
Judg nt ? And considering the corruption of Human Nature, 
one cannot but fear that in time some such practice as is now 
the Reproach of the Church of Rome w d be introduced into 


334 


APPENDIX O. 


the Reformed Church, and too many w d think they should 
make a saving bargain to part with a good deal of money’s to 
be secure of the Prayers of the Church, and not in the mean¬ 
time to be oblig’d to part w th their lusts. 

“ I do not remember, y 1 in y r elaborate collection of S. S. you 
have taken notice of a Text, w h appears to Me expressly to 
determine the Doctrine of an intermediate State, and that the 
Souls of the Elect are in very different mansions betwixt 
Heaven and Earth according to the different Degrees of 
Holiness w h they have attained unto, and this until the Day 
of Judgement.—The Text, Mark 13, 27. If I have overlooked 
it in y r work, you’ll pardon me.” 


O. Page 205. 

Owing in some measure to its insular position, as well as the 
limited extent of the diocese, enabling the bishop really to 
oversee his flock, the Manx Church has been able to maintain 
more of ancient order and discipline than pertains to any other 
diocese in the British Isles. It is hardly likely that this can 
continue to be the case much longer, now that the communica¬ 
tion with England is so easy and constant, and the influx of 
non-natives so large. Indeed for some years past many of the 
Church statutes really available for the suppression of vice and 
the maintenance of order have been practically a dead letter. 
I am informed that it is now about twenty years since the last 
act of public penance was performed in a case of incest. Bishop 
Wilson, in his ‘History of the Isle of Man,’ speaks of the 
practice as very general in his day, and most primitive and 
edifying; and he drew up a form for the reconciliation of 
penitents, which was constantly used. The practice of com¬ 
purgation, which I have noted in his life, may now be con¬ 
sidered as virtually abolished. As yet no marriages are legal 
except as performed by the clergy of the Church, though a 
bill has passed the insular legislature making an alteration in 
favour of Dissenters, similar to the change which took place 
ten years ago in England. 



APPENDIX O. 


335 


Although the English Act of Uniformity, as before observed, 
cannot (as such) be regarded as binding in the Isle of Man, 
yet the uniformity of Rubrical observance in country churches 
where Manx clergymen officiate is much more exact than in 
England. The offertory question for instance, which has 
produced so much ill feeling in the English Church, has not at 
all affected this diocese, because the offertory itself has never 
been dropped; and on Sundays when the Holy Communion is 
administered, the non-communicants withdraw as a matter of 
course after the prayer for “the Whole State of Christ’s Church 
Militant herein earth,” without the blessing. The absence of 
a poor-law on the island, rendering this ancient method of 
collecting the alms of the congregation more necessary, may 
perhaps more than anything else have tended to the preserva¬ 
tion of this practice. Yet there is also an undercurrent, so to 
speak, of ancient Church usages clearly remaining, though only 
feebly developed and very imperfectly understood, which is not 
influenced by any such necessity. The practice for instance 
may be mentioned amongst the old people of bowing, not only 
at the name of Jesus, but also when the Gloria Patri is re¬ 
hearsed ; a practice which seems to have been adopted in ancient 
times as a distinctive mark of the orthodox, in acknowledge¬ 
ment of the mystery of the eternal Trinity. 

Bishop Hildesley notes as a peculiar mark of Manx church- 
manship that the common people reckon their time by the 
canonical church hours as a standard, saying so many hours 
before or after “ traa sherveish,” i. e. service-time. The Manx 
continue several singular and ancient usages in connection with 
the Church festivals. Amongst them those practised at the 
Oiel Varrey (or Eail Yarrey), the vigil of Mary, or the night of 
the feast of Mary, i. e. Christmas Eve, attract most attention. 
The churches as in England being largely decked out with 
evergreens, the parishioners assemble for evening prayer, bear¬ 
ing in their hands to the church large candles prepared for 
the occasion, a species of rivalry existing as to who shall bring 
the largest. After the prayers and generally a sermon referring 


336 


APPENDIX O. 


to the Nativity, an intimation is given by the clergyman that 
any persons having carols to sing may commence. Choirs of 
singers then in different parts of the church relieve each other 
in turn, and the singing of anthems and carols is often kept 
up till a late hour. 

The perambulations and acting of the White Boys at the 
same season is kept up still with as much vigour as in England, 
but on St. Stephen’s day they have a practice which seems 
peculiar to themselves called “hunting the wren.” Boys go 
out in parties into the fields, and when they have discovered a 
wren they pursue it with sticks and stones. Having secured 
their prize, they suspend it on a perch between two osier twigs 
decked out with ribbons and evergreens, and carry it about 
from house to house soliciting subscriptions and singing a song, 
in which allusion seems to he made to the stoning of St. 
Stephen, and the giving alms to the halt, the lame, and the 
blind*. Wherever they receive money they give in return a 
feather of the bird, which after a successful day’s tour is pretty 
w r ell plucked. In the evening they carry out the wren for 
burial. 

The convocation of the clergy has been occasionally alluded 
to, and more particularly in reference to the Canons and Con¬ 
stitutions Ecclesiastical of Bishop Wilson. In order to secure 
the discipline of the Church (as Bishop Wilson says), the 
bishop calls a convocation of his clergy at least once a year. 
The day appointed by law is Thursday in Whitsun week (if 
the bishop he in the Isle), when he has an opportunity of 
inquiring how the discipline of the Church has been observed, 
and by the advice of his clergy of making such constitutions as 
are necessary for its better government. It is one token of 
the independence of the Manx Church, as really a separate 
national church governed by its own laws, that the clergy can 
so meet, and that canons so passed have become law by the 

* The Manx have a proverb peculiar to themselves, to this purport: 
“ Tra ta yn deny vought cooney lesh bought elley, ta Jee hene garaghtee 
i. e. When one poor man relieves another , God himself rejoices at it, or more 
literally, laughs outright. 


APPENDIX O. 


337 


consent of the laity in the house of representatives, and of the 
Lord of the Isle as supreme Governor in Church and State. 
So again the circumstance that Bishop Wilson drew up forms 
of public prayer which were used on various occasions, such 
for instance as that for the herring fishery, is another evidence 
of the same independence. We may mention to the same end 
also, the introduction into the litany and the present constant 
use of a prayer for the fisheries. The petition runs thus, 
“ that it may please to bless and preserve to our use the kindly 
fruits of the earth, and to restore and continue to us the 
blessings of the sea> so as in due time we may enjoy them/’ 

It certainly seems somewhat singular that with this liberty 
no such prayer has been introduced as is in use in Ireland and 
in the different colonies of Great Britain, in behalf of the 
Lieut.-Governor of the Isle for the time being, as well as 
another which seems desirable for the House of the Insular 
Legislature. Why the British Parliament in which the island 
has no representative and whose laws do not directly affect the 
Isle of Man should be exclusively prayed for, does not satis¬ 
factorily appear. 

It is only very lately that the desecration of ancient church¬ 
yards and the treen oratories has taken place. There was a 
strong feeling in their behalf, even within the present century. 
A case of seeming divine retribution in one instance, where in 
an act of apparent necessity a species of sacrilege was com¬ 
mitted, is often brought forward as having occurred in the 
parish of Jurby. A farmer in that parish during a violent 
storm of thunder and lightning drove his sheep for shelter 
into one of the old chapels, which I have noted as so frequent 
on the isle, which at that time (about seventy years ago) had 
the roof on it. It was afterwards observed that the farmer 
lost all the lambs of that flock in the ensuing spring, and that 
many of them were born monstrosities. The story was related 
to me by a clergyman, whose grandfather was the farmer in 
question. It at any rate exhibits the feeling then prevalent, 
and bears out the statement of Bishop Wilson, that the Manx 

Q 


338 


APPENDIX P. 


have generally hated sacrilege to such a degree that they do not 
think a man can wish a greater curse to a family than in these 
wort [ s .—‘ Clagh ny killagh ayns corned dty hie wooar,’ May 
a stone of the church be found in the corner of thy dwelling. 


P. Page 207. 

The proper style and title of the bishop of this island, used 
in the documents by which he is inducted, is Bishop of Man, 
of Sodor, o/Sodor and Man, and of Sodor of Man. The origin 
of this title, and particularly of the term Sodor, is somewhat 
curious and indicative of the various ecclesiastical changes in 
the extent of the diocese at different periods. 

Originally, as now, the diocese was restricted to the Isle of 
Man. There is no reason to dispute the generally received 
tradition that it was constituted by St. Patrick, who in 447 left 
St. Germanus first bishop. 

It appears doubtful whether St. Columba, who (according 
to the Saxon Chronicle) arrived in Iona, a.d. 560, as Abbot of 
that monastery, really exercised any episcopal jurisdiction 
beyond the limits of his monastery. The animosity entertained 
by the Saxon clergy against the school of Iona for adhering to 
the eastern doctrine and discipline instead of that of the 
Lateran is well-known, and therefore their testimony in this 
respect can hardly be relied on. 

The Bishopric of Sodor and the Hebrides or Western Isles, 
was instituted in 838 by Pope Gregory the Fourth, the name 
Sodor, says Bishop Wilson, being taken from the cathedral 
church in Iona dedicated to our Saviour, in Greek Ziorrip (Soter). 
At the same time it is to be observed that the thirty islands 
constituting this bishopric went by the name of the Sudereys, 
i. e. Southern Islands, another group to the north going by the 
name of Nordereys; and we often find in the Chronicles of 
Rushen, the terms Bishop of the Sudoer and Bishop of the 
Isles convertible. And this seems the most probable deriva¬ 
tion of the term Sodor. But in the year 1098, Magnus of 



APPENDIX P. 339 

Norway, having conquered not only the Wes tern Isles, hut Man, 
the bishoprics of Sodor and Man were united*, and so con¬ 
tinued till the close of the fourteenth century, when the English 
having conquered, and being in possession of the Isle of Man 
on the death of John Dunkan, a.d. 1380, the clergy of Iona 
and the Isles elected for their bishop a person named John, and 
the clergy of Man made an election of Robert Waldby for their 
prelate f. 

At the same time the Bishops of Man still retained their 
title of Bishops of Sodor, giving the name Sodor to the little 
island near PeelJ, in which the cathedral of St. German 
was built, and which had previously been called St. Patrick’s 
Isle. 

Thus we see then that the term Bishop of Man is the most 
ancient; and the title of Bishop of Sodor is equivalent to Bishop 
of Iona and the Southern Isles, Bishop of Sodor and Man the 
united diocese of the Sudereys (or Southern Isles) and Man; 
and Bishop of Sodor of Man, means Bishop of the cathedral- 
church in the little islet called Sodor adjoining or belonging to 
Man. 

The Scotch Bishops after the separation never seem to have 
adopted the term Sodor, but only “ Bishop of the Isles,” 
whilst the Manx Bishop seems to have retained the title on 
the same principle that the kings of England retained the title 
of King of France long after they ceased to be possessed of any 
territory therein. 

The arms of the Bishopric are Gules the Virgin Mary, 

* The Archbishop of Drontheim, called Nidorensis Episcopus, was 
Metropolitan, and the consecration took place at his hands. 

f The Bishops of Man were then consecrated by the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, though they had been in more ancient times, as now, con¬ 
secrated by the Archbishop of York ; and the Bishops of Sodor (or of the 
Isles, as they were then called) were consecrated by the Archbishop of 
Glasgow. 

X Thus we read in the grant made by Thomas Earl of Derby, in 1505, 
to Huan Hesketh, of “ Ecclesiam Cathedralem Sancti Germani in Holm, 
Sodor vel Peel vocatam, Ecclesiamque Sancti Patricii ibidem.” 

Q 2 


340 


APPENDIX P. 


standing on three ascents with her arms extended between two 
pillars, supporting on the dexter a church, all proper. In base 
the present arms of the island surmounted with a mitre*. 

It is stated in Keith’s Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, that 
the ancient armorial bearing of the See of Sodor and Man was, 
Azure, St. Columba at sea in a cock-boat all proper in chief, 
over head a blazing star or. 

If these were really the arms of the united Bishoprics of 
Sodor and Man, and not of Sodor alone, previous to the Union, 
I should feel disposed to regard the figure in the cock-boat or 
coracle as that of St. Maughold rather than St. Columba, as 
it bears so close a resemblance to the legend of his arrival upon 
the island; and he was the senior Saint and held by the Manx 
in special repute. 

It is evident from the insertion of the three legs in the base 
of the shield, that the arms now in use were not assumed till 
after the Scottish Conquest; and it is interesting to trace their 
connection through the Abbey of Rushen with the Abbey of 
Furness, whose patron was St. Mary, and which abbey claimed 
a right, according to a grant from the Bishop of Romefj to 
appoint to the Bishopric of Man. In this light they must be 
regarded as a tacit acknowledgement of that right, and of sub¬ 
mission to the authority of the Pope. 

Now the first Bishop of Sodor and Man, who seems more 
directly connected with the Papal See, was Richard, conse¬ 
crated a.d. 1252 at Rome by the Archbishop of Drontheim : 
this was that Richard, who, with the presence and assistance 
of Magnus, the last king of the race of Goddard Crovan, con¬ 
secrated the Abbey Church of St. Mary of Rushen in 1257. 
He died in 1274, i.e. four years after the Scottish Conquest, 
and was buried in the Abbey of Furness. The introduction 

* See Title-page. 

f A bull of Pope Celestine to Furness Abbey runs thus :—“ In eligendo 
Episcopum Insularum, libertatem, quam reges earum bonae memoriae Olavus 
et Godredus filius ejus monasterio vestro contulerunt, sicut in authenticis 
eorum continetur, auctoritate vobis Apostolica confirmamus. Dat. Roraae 
10 Cal. Julii, Pontificatus Nostri 4.” See Ward’s Ancient Records, page 31. 


APPENDIX P. 


341 


therefore of the arms of the See now in use, may with much 
probability be attributed to him. 

The following account of the succession of Bishops of the 
Isle of Man, is given in great part in the words of Sacheverell, 
with some emendations and additions by Bishop Ilildesley*. 
Sacheverell seems in great part to have followed the unpublished 
manuscript in possession of the present Clerk of the Rolls, 
M. Quayle, Esq., unless both copied from some other common 
source; all have derived the substance of the Catalogue from 
the ‘ Chronicon Mannise,’ in which the monks of Rushen 
Abbey have handed down a list of the Bishops who filled the 
See of Man from the days of Goddard Crovan, a.d. 1066, till 
the episcopacy of John Dunkan, a.d. 1378, the last bishop 
before the island passed into the hands of the Stanley family. 

There is no distinct evidence of Christianity having made 
any progress in the Isle of Man till the middle of the fifth 
century. Hector Boetius has made a statement which has 
been followed by Bishop Spotswood and Buchanan, that 
“Cratilinth the Scottish king, a.d. 277, was very earnest in 
the overthrow of Druidism in the Isle of Man and elsewhere; 
and upon the occasion of Dioclesian’s persecution, when many 
Christians fled to him for refuge, he gave them the Isle of 
Man for their residence, and erected there for them a stately 
temple, which he called Sodorense Fanum. And herein Am- 
phibabus a Briton sat first Bishop.” The story has however 
been rejected by most authors of good repute, and put on the 
same footing as that of Capgrave in his life of Joseph of 
Arimathea, respecting Mordraius the Manx king, said to have 
been converted to Christianity. Sacheverell justly observes 
that it is also almost impossible that the Manx nation should 
preserve no memory of so considerable a blessing as their first 
conversion to Christianity, but their tradition is directly against 
this story. 

The mission of St. Patrick and his twenty coadjutors to 
Ireland, for the suppression of the Pelagian heresy, a.d. 434, 

* Bishop Wilson’s account is also an abstract from Sacheverell. 



342 


APPENDIX P. 


is well known. He returned into Britain for the purpose of 
obtaining more help, and in company with thirty religious 
persons, whilst making a second voyage to Ireland, was driven 
by a storm to the Isle of Man, a.d. 444. Here finding the 
people much given to magic, under the influence of Mananan- 
beg-Mac-y-Lheir, he stayed three years, and was instrumental 
in their conversion to the pure Christian faith. To rule over 
this infant church * he left 

GERMANUS, a.d. 447, a holy and prudent man, one of his 
own disciples, and a canon of the Lateran, who so settled 
the matter of religion that the island never afterwards 
relapsedf. St. German, in honour of whom is dedicated 
the cathedral church of Man, dying in the lifetime of St. 
Patrick, that Apostle of the Manx Church consecrated 
successively 

CONINDRIUS, of whom nothing is known but his name, and 
ROMULUS, during whose episcopacy 

ST. MAUGHOLD, a.d. 498, arrived in the island, being cast 
ashore in his little leathern boat at the head which now 
bears his name. He was chosen Bishop by the universal 
consent of the Manx Church. This is said to have been 
five years after the death of St. Patrick, i. e. in 498. How 
long he sat Bishop is uncertain, though Dr. Heylin says 
he was Bishop in 578 £. 

The successor of St. Maughold is said by tradition to 
have been 

ST. LOMANUS, son of Tigrida, and nephew to St. Patrick ; 
in honour of him the parish church of Kirk Lonan is 
dedicated; but his date is uncertain, as are those of his 
successors, whom Manx tradition puts down under the 
names of 

* “ Ad regendum et erudiendum populum in fide Christiana/’ Jocelinus 
in Vita Patricii, ap. Usher’s Annals. f Ibid. 

X This seems very improbable, and I am inclined to read this as a mis¬ 
print for 518, the date of his death as given in Keith’s Catalogue of Scottish 
Bishops. This will nearly coincide with the statement of Sacheverell, 
that he probably sat Bishop for more than twenty-four years. 



APPENDIX P. 


343 


ST. CONAGHAN, and after him 

ST. MAROWN, another patron of one of the insular churches. 

It is known however that in a.d. 600 
CONANUS, a.d. 600, tutor to the three sons of the fourth 
king of Scotland, was sitting bishop. He died January 
26th, a.d. 648, and was succeeded by Rantantus, called 
also 

CONTENTUS, a.d. 648, whose successors at unknown dates 
are stated to have been* * * § 

BALDUS, of whom we have only the name, as also of 
MALCHUS ; nor have we any recorded succession till the 
eleventh century t. All that the monks of Rushen have 
been pleased to tell us of the intervening period is, that 
“ there was doubtless a true succession,” and that the 
Church flourished under the care of their bishops, suc¬ 
cessors to St. Patrick. It is not at all improbable, that 
during the period in which the authority of the Welsh 
princes J was acknowledged in the Isle of Man, there 
might he a close connection between the Manx Church 
and the relic of the ancient British Church in Wales, 
which did not till a very late period acknowledge the 
authority of Rome, and hence the silence of the Rushen 
Chroniclers §. 

ST. BRANDON, a.d. 1025. In the eleventh century, St. 
Brandon, or Brandinus, or Brandanus, in honour of whom 

* Appendix to Memoirs of Bishop Hildesley, page 288. 

f Torkinus or Torkins is inserted in the list of Bishops of Man, a.d. 880 
by Bishop Hildesley and Mr. Train. The very circumstance however 
which is stated by them that he was Bishop of Sodor, contradicts his being 
Bishop of Man, as the Sees were not united till 200 years after his 
episcopate. 

J See page 259, supra. 

§ Whether the Archbishop of Armagh (as successor of St. Patrick) was 
acknowledged as Metropolitan is uncertain. It is not however improbable, 
for the See of York was not constituted under Paulinus till near the middle of 
the seventh century, and the first consecration we hear of by the Archbishop 
of York of a Bishop for the Isle of Man, was that of Wimund for the united 
dioceses of Sodor and Man, in the beginning of the twelfth century. 


344 


APPENDIX P. 


the parish church of Braddan is dedicated, is stated to have 
been Bishop of Man, and he has been placed * as successor 
to Roolwer and William, who were Bishops in the same 
century; yet it seems unlikely, had he succeeded them, that 
the ‘ Chronicon Manniae,’ which mentions these two, would 
have omitted him. The Chronicle begins the list thus :— 
“ These are the bishops which filled the episcopal see of 
Man since the time of Goddard Crownan, a.d. 1077, and 
a few years before.” A short time before the reign of 
Goddard Crownan, or Crovan, 

ROOLWER, a.d. 1050, was consecrated bishop. He is in¬ 
terred in the church of St. Maughold. Next 
WILLIAM, a.d. 1065. After whom, according to Johnstone, 
in the ‘ Celto-Normanicae,’ there was one 
AUMOND M‘OLAVE, a.d. 1077, who was bishop at the 
time of the Norwegian Conquest. After him came 
WYMUND, a.d. 1100, otherwise named Hamund, or Rey- 
mund, and by some Yermundus, of whom Matthew Paris f 
says, “ Post conquestum Norwegorum a.d. 1098, binae 
sedes Sodor et Man in unum coaluerunt et primus epi- 
scopus fuit Wymundus sive Wermundus.” He was son 
of Jole, a Manxman. He was consecrated by Thomas 
Turstan, Archbishop of York, and seems to have been the 
first Bishop of Man who was a suffragan of that province. 
He had been a monk of the Abbey of Furness, but after 
his elevation to the Bishoprick of Sodor and Man, he 
married J a daughter of Somerled Thane of Argyle, and 
becoming obnoxious on account of his overhearing con¬ 
duct, he was expelled the island, and his eyes were put 
out. Matthew Paris says that he died in 1151, and was 
succeeded by 

JOHN, a.d. 1151, a monk of Sais, in Normandy, who was 
buried in St. German’s. After him 

* Appendix to Memoirs of Bishop Hildesley, page 288. 

f Hist. Angl. p. 85. 

X Hailes’ Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 87, quoted by Mr. Train. 


APPENDIX P. 


345 


GAMALIEL, a.d. 1154, an Englishman, was consecrated by 
Roger Archbishop of York in 1154. He died in 1181, 
and was buried at Peterborough. His successor was 
REGINALD, a.d. 1181, a Norwegian ; to him the thirds of 
all the livings in the island were granted by the clergy, 
that from thenceforward they might be freed from all 
episcopal exactions. It is probable that he was the first 
bishop that was consecrated by the Archbishop of Dron- 
theim, in Norway. His successor was one 
CHRISTIAN, a.d. 1190, a native of the Orkneys, who lies 
buried in the monastery of Bangor, in Ireland; to him 
succeeded 

MICHAEL, a.d. 1195, a Manxman, a person of great merit 
and exemplary life. He died in a good old age, and was 
honourably buried “ apud Font anas.” To him succeeded 
NICHOLAS DE MELSA, a.d. 1203, Abbot of Furness. 

He lies buried in the Abbey of Bangor. After him 
REGINALD, a.d. 1216, a person of royal extraction, sisters 
son to good King Olave, was consecrated bishop, and though 
he laboured under great infirmities of body, yet he go¬ 
verned his church with prudence and resolution ; at last, 
with an exemplary resignation, he yielded up his soul into 
the hands of his Creator. He lies buried in the Abbey of 
Rushen, and was succeeded by 

JOHN, the son of Harfare, a.d. 1226, who by the negligence 
of his servants was burnt, “ apud Jerevas in Anglia,” i. e. 
Jervaux Abbey, Yorkshire. After him, one 
SIMON, a.d. 1230, a person of great discretion, and learned 
in the Holy Scriptures, governed the Church with pru¬ 
dence and piety. He held a synod in the year 1239, in 
which thirteen canons* were enacted, most of them relating 
to the probate of wills, the clergy’s dues, and other infe- 


* See Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. i. p. 711, and Ward’s 


Ancient Records, p. 127. 


QL 5 


346 


APPENDIX P. 


rior matters. He died at his palace of Kirk Michael in 
a good old age, and lies buried in the cathedral dedicated 
to St. German, in Peel Castle. After him 
LAWRENCE, a.d. 1247, the Archdeacon, was elected Bishop, 
and after great disputes, consecrated by the Archbishop 
of Drontheim, but was unfortunately drowned with Harold 
king of Man, his queen, and almost all the nobility of the 
Isles; so that the Bishopric continued vacant almost 
six years,—when 

RICHARD, a.d. 1252, an Englishman, was consecrated at 
Rome by the Archbishop of Drontheim. This bishop 
consecrated the Abbey Church of St. Mary of Rushen, 
anno 1257. After he had governed the Church twenty- 
three years, returning from a general council, anno 1274, 
he died “ apud Langallyner in Copelandia,” and lieth 
buried in the Abbey of Furness. In his time the Scotch 
conquered the island. He was succeeded by 
MARKUS GALVADIENSIS, a.d. 1275, commonly written 
Gallovedinus, at the nomination of Alexander king of 
Scotland ; for which reason it is supposed he was banished 
by the Manxmen ; during his absence the island lay under 
an interdict, but at last being recalled, he laid a Smoke 
Penny upon every house by way of commutation. He 
held a synod at Kirk Braddan, in which thirty-five canons 
were enacted *. He lived to a great age, and was for many 
years blind, and lies buried in St. German’s Church, in 
Peel Castle, and was succeeded by 
ON AN US f, a.d. 1298, of whom only the name is recorded. 
MAURITIUS?, a.d. 1303, who was sent prisoner to London 
by King Edward I., therefore supposed never to be con- 

* “ Constitutiones Synodales Soderensis Ecclesiae in Synodo ordinatae 
et statutae in Ecclesia Sancti Bradani in Mannia sexto idus Martii, a.d. 
1291.”—Ward’s Ancient Records, p. 129. 

f Onanus or Inanus, given in Mr. Quayle’s MS. from Spotswood, 
Scottish Church, Book II. p. 116. 




APPENDIX P. 347 

secrated nor put into the catalogue of bishops. In his 
room was substituted 

ALLEN*, a.d. 1305, of Galloway, who governed the Church 
with honour and integrity. He died the 15th of February, 
anno 1321, and lies at Rothersay, in Scotland. To him 
succeeded 

GILBERT, a.d. 1321, of Galloway, who sat but two years and a 
half, and lies buried near his predecessor, in the church of 
Rothersay aforesaid. And after him 
BERNARD, a.d. 1323, a Scotchman, held the bishopric 
thirteen years, and lies buried in the monastery of Kil- 
wining, or Arbroath, in Scotland, and was succeeded by 
THOMAS, a.d. 1334, a Scot, who sat bishop fourteen years : 
he was the first that exacted twenty shillings of his clergy 
by way of procuration, as likewise the tenths of all aliens. 
He died the 20th of September 1348. The same year 
WILLIAM RUSSELL, a.d. 1348, Abbot ofRushen, was elected 
by the whole clergy of Man, in St. German’s Church, in 
Peel Castle. He was consecrated by Pope Clement VI. 
at Avignon, and was the first that shook off the yoke of 
the Archbishop of Drontheim, by whom his predecessors 
had for many ages been consecrated. He held a synod, 
anno 1350, in Kirk Michael, in which five articles were 
added to the former canons. He died the 21st of April 
1374, and was buried in the Abbey of Furness: he was 
Abbot of Rushen eighteen years, and Bishop twenty-six 
years ; and after him 

JOHN DUNKANf, a.d. 1374, a Manxman, was elected by 
the clergy of Man, and going to Avignon was confirmed 
by Pope Gregory XI., and consecrated “ per Cardinalem 

* In the ancient Rolls of Scotland occurs this note :—“ Allan of Wigh - 
town holds letters of presentation to the Church of St. Carber, in Man.” 
This presentation to the living of Kirk Cairbre, or Arbory, took place in 
1295. See Train’s History, vol. i. p. 339. 

f John Dunkan is the last bishop mentioned in the 1 Chronicon Manniae.’ 
The narrative tells us that on his installation in St. German’s in 1376, “ he 
received many great offerings.” 


348 


APPENDIX P. 


Prenestinum, dudumArchiepiscopum in his return home 
he was made prisoner at Bolonia, in Picardy, and lay in 
irons two years, and at last was forced to ransom himself 
for 500 marks; so that he was not installed till the year 
1376. On his death the two sees were divided; the 
clergy of Iona electing a bishop for the western Isles 
named John, and the clergy of Man electing 
ROBERT WELBY, or WALDBY, a.d. 1380, who, it is be¬ 
lieved, sat twenty-two years, and is said to have been 
translated to the see of Dublin*. He had for his suc¬ 
cessor, according to Sacheverell, 

JOHN SPROTTON, a.d. 1402, the first Bishop mentioned 
in the insular records. It is uncertain how long he sat 
Bishop, but in the Statute Book of the Isle of Manf, we 
find under date of 1430, mention made of a visitation the 
year before, held by 

RICHARD PULLEY, a.d. 1429, of whom we have only the 
name. The next to him appears to have been 
JOHN GREENJ, a.d. 1448, Yicar of Dunchurch in Warwick¬ 
shire, who continued to hold his English preferment with 
his bishopric. He died in 1452, and was succeeded by 
THOMAS BURTON, a.d 1452, who held the see twenty- 
eight years, and died in possession in 1480. After him 
RICHARD OLDHAM, a.d. 1481, Abbot of Chester, who 
died September 19th, 1486, and was buried in the Abbey 

4IUAN, HUGH, or EYAN HESKETH, a.d. 1487, succeeded 
him. In his time Thomas Stanley, King of Man and 
Earl of Derby, in a deed preserved by Dugdale §, dated 
March 28th, 1505, confirmed to him and his successors 
all the lands and possessions of his bishopric. He died 
in 1510, and was buried in his cathedral of St. German 
at Peel. 

* Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, p. 304. 

t Miles’s Statute Laws of the Isle of Man, p. 13. 

X Appendix to Memoirs of Hildesley, p. 293. 

§ Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. i. p. 7. 


APPENDIX P. 


349 


Whether the Bishopric was immediately filled up is 
uncertain. But it appears by an indenture in the Lex 
Scripta of the Isle of Man, that one 
JOHN, a.d. 1510 ?, was Bishop in 1532* * * § . And we also learn 
that in the year 1542, 

THOMAS STANLEY, son of Sir Edward Stanley, first Lord 
Monteagle, was holding the Bishopric: in his time the 
statute of 33 Henry VIII. was passed, dissevering the Isle 
of Man from Canterbury, and annexing it to York; and 
Bishop Stanley, not complying with these arbitrary mea¬ 
sures of Henry, was deprived in 1545, and in his room 
was appointed 

ROBERT FERRAR, or FERRIER, a.d. 1545, translated to 
St. David’s in 1546f. He had been chaplain to Arch¬ 
bishop Cranmer in 1533. He was imprisoned during the 
reign of Edward VI., for his Lutheran opinions, and 
on Mary’s accession to the Crown, he was condemned as a 
heretic, degraded, and burnt at the Market Cross, Caer- 
marthen, March 30th, 1555. 

HENRY MANN, a.d. 1546, D.D. of Oxford, and Dean of 
Chester, had the royal assent to his election to the See 
of Sodor and Man, January 22nd, 1546. He continued 
to hold the See in the reign of Mary, anddied in quiet 
possession, October 10th, 1556, and was buried in 
St. Andrew’s Undershaft Church, in London. On his 
death, 

THOMAS STANLEY, a.d. 1556, was restored^ ; nor was he 
again deprived on the accession of Elizabeth, but continued 
quietly to exercise his episcopal functions till his death in 
1568 §. He was also appointed Governor of the island 

* Ward’s Ancient Records, p. 88. 

f Stated in Burnet to have been consecrated in 1548. 

+ “ Thus it appears that the See of Sodor and Man has never lost the 
regular succession of its Bishops, being the only diocese in the British 
Church of which that can be said.”—Ward’s Ancient Records, p. 89. 

§ There is on the Isle of Man no record whatever of the period of the 
Reformation. 


350 


APPENDIX P. 


in 1556. Wood says that he paid his last debt to nature 
in the latter end of the year 1570. This is not unlikely, 
as it appears that his successor, 

JOHN SALISBURY, Dean of Norwich and Chancellor of 
Lincoln, and Archdeacon of Anglesea, was consecrated in 
1571. He had a share in translating the Bible into 
Welsh. He died in 1573, and was buried in Norwich 
Cathedral. After the not unusual custom of Elizabeth, 
the See was kept vacant three years, when 
JOHN MERRICK, a.d. 1577, was sworn Bishop of the Isle. 
He gave Camden the History of the Isle of Man, pub¬ 
lished in his ‘ Britannia.’ He died in 1599, and was im¬ 
mediately succeeded by 

GEORGE LLOYD, a.d. 1600, Rector of Heswall, Cheshire, 
who was afterwards, January 14th, 1604, translated to 
the See of Chester, and in his room 
JOHN PHILLIPS, D.D., a.d. 1605, Dean of Cleveland and 
Rector of Hawarden, Flintshire, succeeded. He was a 
native of North Wales, and is said to have translated the 
Bible and Prayer Book into Manx: the latter was extant 
in the days of Sacheverell. He was famous for his great 
pains in preaching, his charity and hospitality. He died 
August 7th, 1633, and was buried in St. German’s Ca¬ 
thedral. After him 

WILLIAM FORSTER, D.D.*, a.d.1633. Fellow of Catherine 
College, Cambridge, and Prebendary of Chester. He held 
a court at Douglas, October 1634, and died in the begin¬ 
ning of 1635. 

RICHARD PARR, D.D., a.d. 1635, a Lancashire man, some 
time Fellow of Brazennose College in Oxford, who, whilst 
he continued in the University (says Mr. Challoner of his 
own knowledge), was an eminent preacher. He was the 
last who sat Bishop before the civil wars. He died in 
1643. The See having been vacant seventeen years, 

* Sacheverell (who has been followed in this by Bishop Wilson) has 
placed his name inadvertently before John Phillips. 




APPENDIX P. 


35 L 


SAMUEL RUTTER*, a.d. 1661 , was sworn Bishop. He had 
been Archdeacon several years, and governed the Church 
with great prudence during the civil wars : he was a man 
of exemplary goodness and moderation, and sat Bishop 
till the year 1663; “ to his assistance,” says Seacome, 
“ I am greatly obliged for his collections and memoirs 
made use of in my present history of the noble house of 
Stanley, but especially in that ever-memorable siege of 
Lathom; the defence whereof he had a large share in.” 
After him 

ISAAC BARROW, D.D., a.d. 1663, was consecrated Bishop, 
and sent over Governor by Charles Earl of Derby. He 
was a man of a public spirit, and great designs for the 
good of the Church ; to his industry is greatly owing 
all the learning amongst the clergy of Man, and to his 
prudence and charity many of the poor clergy owe the 
bread they eat. This good man, to the great loss of the 
island, was removed to St. Asaph, and was succeeded by 
HENRY BRIDGEMAN, D.D., a.d. 1671. And after 
him 

JOHN LAKE, a.d. 1682, afterwards removed, a.d. 1684, to 
Bristol. He was again translated to Chichester, 1685. 
On the 8th of June 1688, this prelate, with Sancroft, 
Lloyd, Ken, Turner, White and Trelawney, was com¬ 
mitted to the Tower by James II. for petitioning him 
against the publication of his ‘ Declaration for Liberty of 
Consciencef.’ He died 1689. 

BAPTIST LEVINZ, D.D., a.d. 1684, who died 1693; and 
was succeeded by 

* The author of Mr. Quayle’s MS., writing at the close of the Great 
Rebellion, says, “ At my being in the Island, in place of the Bishop (sede 
vacante), the Church was governed by Mr. Rutter, the then Archdeacon of 
Man. A man more meriting to have succeeded than to have supplied the 
Bishop's place and office." 

t See Bishop Short’s History of the Church of England, p. 566. 


352 


APPENDIX P. 


THOMAS WILSON, D.D., a.d. 1697-98, who died in 1755. 
His praise is in all the Church. 

MARK IIILDESLEY, D.D., a.d. 1755. Under his auspices 
the Manx version of the Bible was consummated. He 
received the last portion of it on Saturday, November 
28th, 1772, and on the Monday following was seized with 
the palsy, and died on the 7th of the ensuing month. 
RICHARD RICHMOND, D.D., a.d. 1773, was consecrated 
as successor, and died in London, February 4th, 1780. 
GEORGE MASON, a.d. 1780, was the next Bishop, but 
only held the Bishopric three years. He died in 1783. 
His successor was 

CLAUDIUS CREGAN, D.D., consecrated February 20th, 
1784. He was nominated by the Dowager Duchess of 
Athol during the minority of her son. On his death the 
appointment of his successor was kept open till the 
Hon. GEORGE MURRAY, a.d. 1813, second son of Lord 
George Murray, Bishop of St. David’s, and nephew to John 
the fourth Duke of Athol, was of age for consecration. 
The consecration took place in April 1813. In the year 
1827 he was translated to Rochester, and 
WILLIAM WARD, D.D., a.d. 1827, Rector of Great 
Hawksley, Essex, succeeded. In his episcopate was 
passed the Act for uniting this See with Carlisle. Through 
the great exertion of the Bishop, seconded by his clergy 
and the leading members of the laity of the Church, to¬ 
gether with the strong remonstrance of the Bishops of 
the English Church, this scheme was ultimately set aside. 
Bishop Ward was the means of adding largely to the 
church accommodation of the island*, and he very greatly 
promoted the erection of King William’s College. He 
died at Great Hawksley, in Essex, January 26th, 1838. 

* He succeeded in raising £8000 for this purpose in England, and 
nearly £4000 in the island. Out of this sum eight new churches were 
erected, and others enlarged. 


APPENDIX P. 353 

To him succeeded, as the first nominee of the British 
Crown, 

JAMES BOWSTEAD, a.d. 1838, late Tutor of Corpus Christi 
College, and Rector of Rettenden, Essex. He was cre¬ 
ated D.D. by Royal mandate*. During the short period 
of his episcopacy on the island he established the Dioce¬ 
san Society. On his translation to the See of Lichfield, 
1840, 

HENRY PEPYS, D.D., a.d. 1840, brother to Lord Chan¬ 
cellor Cottenham, succeeded f, but in the year following 
was translated to Worcester. His successor was 
THOMAS YOWLER SHORT, D.D., a.d. 1841, Rector of 
St. George’s, Bloomsbury, and formerly Tutor of Christ’s 
Church, Oxford^. At the close of 1846 he was trans¬ 
lated to St. Asaph. The successor of Bishop Short in the 
See of Sodor and Man, was the 

Ven. WALTER AUGUSTUS SHIRLEY, D.D., a.d. 1847, 
Archdeacon of Derby, who was installed at Castletown, 
February 1st, 1847. He had been appointed Bampton 
Lecturer for that year, and entered upon the first portion 
of his course in the Lent Term. He returned to Bishop’s 
Court in the Easter vacation, where he was soon after 
seized by an attack of bronchitis, and on the 21st of April 
he expired, after an episcopate of only three months. His 
successor, the present Bishop, is the 
Hon. ROBERT EDEN, D.D., a.d. 1847, youngest son of 
William first Lord Auckland, and brother to George 
present Earl of Auckland, late Governor-General of India, 
and now First Lord of the Admiralty. His Lordship, 
who previous to his appointment to the Bishopric of Sodor 
and Man had been Fellow of Magdalen College, Cambridge, 
Chaplain to the Queen and Vicar of Battersea, Surrey, is 

* His installation took place in St. Mary’s Chapel, Castletown, Sep¬ 
tember 5th, 1838. 

t Installed at Castletown, May 8th, 1840. 

X Installed at Castletown, July 25th, 1841. 


354 


APPENDIX Q. 


heir-presumptive to the barony of Auckland. His Lord- 
ship was installed at Castletown, June 29th, 1847. 

The Bishop of Sodor and Man is the highest member in the 
Lower House of the English Convocation. He has a seat in 
the House of Lords, within the bar, apart from the other 
Bishops, but no vote*. As the Bishop now, since the pur¬ 
chase of the Isle, no longer holds his barony from a subject, 
but directly from the Crown, it would appear that if the Sove¬ 
reign should choose, he might be summoned to the House of 
Lords, unless the circumstance of his having a seat in an inde¬ 
pendent legislature within the dominions of Great Britain 
should seem to preclude him. 


Q. Page 242. 

The following list of 222 species of the Carboniferous lime¬ 
stone fossils of the southern basin of the Isle of Man, is given 
from specimens in my own cabinet. By more diligent search 
the number would probably be largely increased. There is a 
small collection of Manx limestone fossils in the Museum of 
the Geological Society of London, of which no separate cata¬ 
logue has been published. We have a notice of 14 species 
only as from thelsle of Man, in Phillips’ ‘Geology of Yorkshire,’ 
and a few more are given in Sowerby’s ‘ Mineral Conchology.’ 
The present addition will therefore be useful, both as an addi¬ 
tion to the British localities of the different fossils, and also as 
indicative of the different changes in the character of the marine 
fauna in the neighbourhood of the Isle of Man, at different 
periods of the carboniferous limestone formation. 

* In Crutwell’s Life of Bishop Wilson, 4to, p. xxxiv. there is the fol¬ 
lowing note:— 

“ If the island, as in case of treason, should become forfeit to the 
Crown, the Bishop, holding his barony from the Sovereign, would then 
have a vote as well as a seat. This information is from a gentleman on 
the authority of the present Earl of Abingdon’s grandfather, who said that 
the Bishop of Man had a seat there de suojure.” 




APPENDIX Q. 


355 


For the naming of the Cephalopoda in the subjoined list, 
I am chiefly indebted to the kindness of Count Keyserling, for 
the Corals to Professor Ansted, and for the Brachiopoda to the 
late Mr. Gilbertson. Having submitted to the last-named 
gentleman a series of specimens taken from the lower lime¬ 
stone deposit, he noted that he did not generally recognise the 
forms to which he had been accustomed in the mountain 
limestone of Yorkshire and Derbyshire. In the list will be 
found a few identifications with foreign specimens, given by 
Professor De Koninck in his work on the Carboniferous fossils 
of Belgium. I have also ventured to add a few provisional 
names for some fossils for which I could obtain no identifi¬ 
cation. 




Plants. 


Adiantum . 

Pecopteris. 

Sphenopteris nervosa, Brongn. 
Lepidostrobus ornatus, Brongn. 


Calamites 


* 

* 

* 

* 

* 


Glauconome plumus,var.,PAi//. 
Lithodendron crassum,DeAcw. 

- fasciculatum, Flem . 

Michelinia favosa, Gold/.. . 

Pustulopora oculata, Milne 

Edwards . 

Syringopora raraulosa, Goldf. 


* 

* 

* 


* 


* 

* 


* 


* 


ZOOPHYTA. 

Amplexus coralloides, Sow. ... 

-spinosus, De Kon . 

Cyathophyllum basaltiforme, 

var., Phill. . 

--fungites, De Kon . 

Calamopora inflata ?, De Kon.. 

Caunopora ramosa, Phill . 

Caninia gigantea, Michelin .... 

Favosites csetetes, Phill . 

- scabra, Rafinesque . 

- Gothlandica, Phill ...— 

Gorgonia fastuosa, DeKon. ... 

- laxa, Phill. ..... 

- polyporata, Phill. . 

- retiformis, Schloth . 

- ripisteria, Goldf. . 

-striata mei, .. 

- tortuosa mei , n.s. 

- tenuifila, Phill . 

Heteropora, species unknown 


* 


* 

* 

* 

* 

* 

* 

* 


* 

* 

* 




* 

* 


* 

* 


* 

* 

* 

* 


Echinodermata. 

Platycrinus gigas, Phill . * 

-, unknown species.....*..* 

Poteriocrinus crassus, Martin * 
- Egertoni, Phill . * 

Annelida. 

Traces in sbale beds. * 


* 


* 


* 

* 

* 


Crustacea. 

Cythere Phillipsiana. 

Cvpridina ovalis mei .••• 

Phillipsia gemmulifera, Phill. 

- granulifera, Phill . 

- Kellii, Portl . 

- ornata, Portl . 

- raniceps, Phill.. . 

- seminifera, Phill . 

- truncatula, Phill . 

-unknown species. 





















































356 


APPENDIX Q. 


CONCHIFERA DlMYARTA. 


ovalis, DeKun.... 
tellinaria, Goldf 


Cypricardia striatola-n 

De Kon . 

Cucullaea arguta, Phill 
Nucula claviformis _ 


Pleurorhynchus aliformis, 

Phill. . 

- minax, Phill. . 


angustata, Phill. 
sulcata, Phill. 


Solemya primaeva, Phill. 
Solen siliquo'ides, DeKon. 


CONCHIFERA MoNOMYARTA. 


laevigata, De Kon. 
lunulata, Phill.... 
cycloptera, Phill.. 
tessellata, De Kon. 


Inoceramus vetustus, Sow. 
Posidonia Beclieri, Phill... 

- lateralis, Phill. . 

gracillima mei 


Pecten arenosus, Phill.... 

- dissimilis, Phill. ... 

- hemisphaericus, Phill.... 

- plicatus, Sow . 

- fimbriatus, Phill.... 


Brachiopoda. 

Leptaena corrugata mei . 

-depressa, Dalm . 

- papilionacea, Phill . 

- sarcinulata, D'Archiac 


et De Vemeuil . 

Orthis crenistria . 

-resupinata, Phill.... 

•- Sharpei, Morris ... 

- umbraculum, var., 


De 


Buch 

Productus antiquatus, Sow. 

- auritus, Phill . 

- comoides, Sow .. 


Lower 

| limestone. 

1 Poolvash 
| limestone. 

| Posidonian 
| schist. 


* 



* 



* 


> 

* 


. * 

* 



* 



* 



* 



* 



* 



* 


. * 

* 


. * 

* 



* 



* 


* 

* 


* 

* 



* 


* 


* 

* 


* 



* 

* 

* 


* 

* 



* 


* 

* 


* 



* 



* 

* 

* 

* 

* 


* 

* 

* 

* 

* 



* 



* 


* 

* 



Productus concinnus, Sow. 

-costatus, Sow. . . 

- giganteus, Sow . 

- hemisphaericus, Sow. 

- fimbriatus, Sow . 

- latissimus, Sow . 

- lobatus, Sow . 

- longispinus, Sow . 

- Martini, Sow . 

- mesolobus, Phill. . 


- punctatus, Sow. ... 

- quincuncialis, Phill. 

- rarispinus, De Kon. 

- scabriculus, Sow.... 


- spinosus, Sow.... 

- striatus, Fischer 

undatus, Defr. 


Spirifer attenuatus, Sow. . 

- bisulcatus, Sow . 

- convolutus, Phill..... 

- crispus, Linn . 

- connivens, Phill..... 

- connivens, var. 

- cuspidatus, Sow . 

- decorus, Sow . 

- duplicicostus, Phill. 

- bisulcatus, Sow . 

- glaber, Sow . 

globularis, Phill. 


- integricostatus, Phill .. 

- pinguis, Sow . 

- recurvatus, De Kon . 

- rotundatus, var., Sow.. 

- rhomboideus, Phill . 

- semicircularis, Phill. .. 

- senilis, Phill . 

- striatus, Sow . 

- undulatus, Sow . 


ambigua, Phill.... 
excavata, Phill. . 
excavata, var. ... 
hastata, Sow. ... 
mesogona, Phill.. 
pleurodon, Phill. 
pugnus, Sow. ... 
sacculus, Sow.... 
trilatera, De Kon. 




55 o 

£ § 

,j a 


o5 js a5 
























































































































APPENDIX Q 


357 


- w 

^ s 


Gasteropoda. 
Buccinum acutum, Sow. 

- imbricatum, Sow. 

Cirrus rotundatus, Sow. 

-tabulatus, Phill. .. 

Chemnitzia Lefebvrei, DeKon. 

- curvilineum ?, DeKon... 

- elongata, De Kon . 

- rugifera, De Kon . 

Euomphalus carbonarius... 

-catillus, Sow . 

- pentangulatus, Sow.. 

pugilis, Phill. 


Murchisonia, unknown species 

- Humboldtiana, DeKon. 

Natica ampliata, Phill. . 

- elliptica, Phill. . 

- elongata, Phill. . 

- lirata, Phill. . 

- neritoides, Phill. . 

Patella pileus, Phill . 

- mucronata . 


Pileopsis angustus, Phill.... 

- extensus mei, n.s. 

Pleurotomaria acuta, Phill. 

- concentrica, Phill . 

- conica ?, Phill . 

- coronata mei, n.s. ... 

- catenata, De Kon . 

- expansa, Phill ... 

- gemmulifera, Phill.... 

- glabrata, Phill. . 

- linealis mei , n.s. 

- naticoides, DeKon.... 

- ovoidea, Phill . 

sulcatula, Phill. 


Solarium radians, De Kon. ... 
Trochus biserratus, P/«7/.,var. 

HETEROrODA. 

Bellerophon apertus, Sow . 

- cornu arietis, Sow . 

- hiulcus, Sow . 

- tenuifascia, Sow . 

.- Woodwardii, Phill. . 

Cephalopoda. 
Cresseis primseva?, Forbes .... 
- calamus met, n.s. 


53 


Cyrtoceras unguis, Phill. 
obliquatum, Phill. 
Poolvashii mei, n.s. 

rugosum, Fleming . 

tessellatum mei, n.s. ... 
Goniatites crenistria, Phill.... 

evolutus, Phill . 

Henslowi, Phill. . 

implicatus, Phill . 

intercostalis, Phill. . 

micronotus, Phill. . 

obtusus, Phill. . 

reticulatus, Phill. . 

sphaericus, Phill. . 

striolatus, Phill . 

truncatus, Phill. 


Gyrdceras serratum, De Kon... 
Nautilus biangulatus, Sow. 

- bistrialis, Phill . 

complanatus, Sow. 


- cyclostomus, Phill. 

- ingens, Phill. . 

- oxystomus, Phill.... 

- subsulcatus, Phill. 

- sulcatus, Phill . 

pinguis, De Kon.... 


Orthoceras calamus, De Kon... 

cinctum, Sow . 

csetetes mei, n.s. 

dentaloideum, Phill. .... 

distans, Sow . 

dilatatum, DeKon . 

filiferum, Phill. . 

fusiforme, Sow . 

Gesneri, Mart . 

giganteum, Sow .. 

laterale, Phill . 

Martineanum, De Kon.. 
Muensterianum, DeKon 
ovale, Phill. 


- pyriforme, Sow . 

- prolongatum mei, n.s. 

Pisces. 

Helodus laevissimus, Agass. 

- planus, Agass . 

Psammodus porosus. 

- rugosus ?, Agass . 


limestone. 

Poolvash 

limestone. 

Posidonian 

schist. 














































































































358 


APPENDIX Q. 


The following analysis of the above list for each of the de¬ 
posits is interesting:— 



Lower 

limestone. 

Poolvash 

estone. 

Posidonian 

schist. 

Plalltflp.. 

0 

0 

5 

Znnphyta. 

16 

14 

2 

fi) rli i n nd ppm a ta. 

3 


0 

Armplidap.. 

1 

0 

1 

Crnstaopa. 

2 

7 

1 

Conchifera Dimyaria . 

3 

13 

0 

Conchifera Monomyaria . 

7 

9 

3 

Brachiopoda. 

22 

48 

4 

Gasteropoda.* 

6 

31 

4 

tTpi^^poda. 

2 

4 

0 

Cephalopoda. 

11 

26 

18 

Pi^pps ,. 

3 

0 

1 



Total number in each deposit... 

76 

,153 

39 


In order to show a reason for the separation which I have 
made of the Carboniferous limestone series of the Isle of Man 
into the three divisions of—1st, Lower limestone ; 2nd, Pool- 
vash limestone ; 3rd, Posidonian schist, it will he sufficient 
to call attention to the following facts, as seen in the above 
table, viz. that— 

Of the 222 species named and located in it we have only 
30 common to 1st and 2nd. 

8 — 1st and 3rd. 

11 — 2nd and 3rd. 

3 -— 1st, 2nd and 3rd. 

Again, of the 76 species occurring in the 1st, 40, or more 
than 50 per cent., are found in it only. 

Of the 153 species occurring in the 2nd, 117, or 76 per 
cent., are found in it only. 

Of the 39 species found in the 3rd, 20, or just 50 per cent., 
belong to it alone. 

The fossils characteristic of the lower limestone series seem 
to he fc Orthis Sharpei,” “ Productus hemisphcericus“ Cau- 
nopora ramosa” Favosites ccetetes, and the larger variety of 





















APPENDIX R. 


359 


the Cyathophyllum fungites. The localities for obtaining them 
are the little creek of Ronaldsway, Strandhall to the westward 
of Poolvash, and Port St. Mary. At Scarlet, near the lime¬ 
kilns, the specimens of Ammonites Henslowii and Nautilus 
complanatus , which are in the Woodwardian Museum, Cam¬ 
bridge, were obtained. I am not aware that the latter fossil 
has elsewhere been found. There are many examples of it on 
the surface of a bed of limestone at Scarlet, but extremely dif¬ 
ficult of extraction. Of the Ammonites Henslowii , which is a 
rare and beautiful fossil, I have found three examples. 

The upper or Poolvash limestone fossils are found in great 
abundance about a quarter of a mile westward of the mouth of 
the streamlet from Balladoole. The characteristic fossils are 
Orthis resupinata , Terebratula excavata , Productus striatus 
(anomalus ), and Goniatites crenistria , all very abundant. 

The Posidonian schist is found at the mouth of the Balla¬ 
doole streamlet. A little to the eastward, just at high-water 
mark, fossils occur in it as a sulphuret of iron; these are 
chiefly Goniatites and Orthocerata, not found in any other lo¬ 
cality. The Posidonia is a plentiful and characteristic fossil 
in all the black schistose beds. The ferns and Favosites Goth- 
landica may be met with in a hollow near three dykes, about 
300 yards westward of the Balladoole stream. 


R. Page 246. 

The following list of forty fossil species from the Pleistocene 
marine formation of the Isle of Man, collected by myself, and 
named by Professor E. Forbes, has already in part appeared in 
my memoir in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 
vol. ii. p. 346 ; it contains however several interesting additions 
made since the publication of my memoir. The fullest account 
of Pleistocene fossils hitherto published will be found in the 
valuable memoir of Professor E. Forbes on the geological rela¬ 
tions of the existing fauna and flora of the British Isles, which 


360 


appendix s. 


forms a portion of the first volume of the ? Memoirs of the 
Geological Survey of Great Britain/ 

Mammalia. 

The rib of a cetacean, species unknown, found in the drift at Douglas. 


Mollusca. 

Order Palliobranchiata. 

Mactra solida. 

Corbula nucleus. 

Tellina solidula. 

Astarte borealis. 

-elliptica ; the giarensis of Mr. 

Nicol. 

■-darunoniensis. 

-compressa. 

- pisiformis. 

Cyprina islandica. 

Artemis exoleta. 

Venus casina. 

-gallina. 

Cardium edule. 

-laevigatum. 

Pectunculus pilosus. 

Pullustra decussata. 

Leda minuta; the Nucula rostrata 
of Sowerby. 

- rostrata; the Nucula oblonga 

of Brown. 


Gasteropoda. 

Dentalium entale. 

Patella vulgata. 

Littorina littorea. 

Turritella terebra. 

Murex erinaceus. 

Fusus Bamffius. 

- scalariformis. 

- Forbesi; distinct from the 

Fusus cinereus of Say. 

- antiquus. 

Pleurotoma turricula. 

■- laevigata. 

Buccinum undatum. 

- (ciliatum ?). 

Purpura lapillus. 

Nassa Monensis. 

- reticulata. 

- macula. 

Natica clausa. 

Cirripeda. 

Balanus communis. 

- uddevallensis. 


S. Page 252. 

The flora of the Isle of Man is singularly deficient in inter¬ 
est, so far as the presence of rarities distinguishes it. Considered 
however with respect to the British flora generally, and espe¬ 
cially as bearing on the geological history of that flora, it is not 
unimportant. 

The greatest part of the plants of the British Isles are colo¬ 
nists from Central Europe. They emigrated hither after the 
upheaval and over the upraised bed of the Pleistocene sea. Of 
such plants, as might be expected, the rarer species are to be 
met with in the eastern English counties, whilst those only ca¬ 
pable of the greatest diffusion, and consequently of becoming 
commonest, found their way to Ireland and the Isle of Man 








APPENDIX S. 


361 


before the breaking up of that portion of the upraised Pleisto¬ 
cene sea-bed which occupied the area of the now Irish Sea. 
This event happening before some plants generally common in 
England had diffused themselves so far, excluded them from 
our Manx flora. 

Before this upheaval of the Pleistocene sea-bed, such parts of 
Britain as were above water existed in the condition of islands 
in an ice-charged sea, or of land connected with other land very- 
far north, whence a vegetation of a boreal or arctic character 
was derived. This vegetation still remains on the summits of 
the Scottish, Cumberland and Welsh mountains, and consists 
of alpine plants in the north of Scandinavia. These plants in 
the north of Scandinavia, where climatal conditions nearly simi¬ 
lar to those which prevailed w r ithin our area during the Plei¬ 
stocene epoch are still maintained, are there seen not only on 
the mountains, but growing to the edge of the shore. 

In the Isle of Man we have no trace of this flora. There 
are no alpine plants upon our mountains, which in all proba¬ 
bility were during some part of the Pleistocene epoch wholly 
submerged *. 

In the south of England and south of Ireland there is a flora 
consisting of such plants as are commonest in the west of 
France, and which must have emigrated at the time of the 
union of those parts of our islands with the continent. Of such 
we have no traces on the Isle of Man, nor of the peculiar Astu¬ 
rian flora which gives a character to the vegetation of the hills 
in the west of Ireland. 

The few rare Manx plants belong to an assemblage the 
history of which has not yet been developed. They are essen¬ 
tially western , either peculiar to the western parts of Britain 
and to Ireland, or found chiefly in the western and soutli- 

* I have the permission of Professor Forbes, in reference to the above 
hypothesis, to direct attention to the facts which I have stated in the body 
of the work, tending to establish the probability of great ice-charged 
waves sweeping over the mountain summits, which would most effectually 
destroy any previously existing flora. See page 178, supra. —J.G.C. 

R 


362 


APPENDIX S. 


western coasts of Europe. They may possibly be fragments of 
the flora of the great western extension of Europe, the exist¬ 
ence of which geological investigations have rendered probable 
during a period beginning about the close of the Miocene 
epoch, and terminating just before the historical. 

Our rarest plants, as the Sinapis Monensis , the Campanula 
hederacea , Pinguicula lusitanica , Euphorbia portlandica, and 
Scirpus Savii , are instances. Radiola millegrana , Centunculus 
minimus , Linum angustifolium and Carum verticillatum, all 
plants worth gathering, were probably companions of these. 

The localities and distribution of such Manx plants as are 
worthy of notice may briefly be narrated. 

On the slaty rocks which form cliffs overhanging the sea, 
between Douglas and Maughold Head, Douglas and Coshna- 
hawin, Peel and Spanish Head, and the Calf Islet, are not a few 
plant? worth gathering. The most general of these are the 
Scilla verna y a very beautiful species of Squill, flowering in 
great profusion during spring and summer, and scenting the 
air with its fragrance. Cockle aria grcenlandica and other 
species of scurvy grass are common. Arenaria marina , Plan - 
tago maritima, Statice Armeria (the sea-pink), Pyrethrum 
maritimum , and Silene injlata are everywhere abundant. The 
samphire, Crithmum maritimum , grows profusely among the 
rocks in many places. The sea-kale, Crarnbe maritima , 
occurs near Dalby. The handsome Lavatera arborea is found 
on the Calf and at Spanish Head. The Artemisia maritima 
(var. gallied) is abundant on the rocks near Kirk Santon. 
Rhodiola rosea occurs near Peel. Scutellaria minor , Scirpus 
Savii and Pinguicula rosea are frequent in damp ravines 
opening to the sea, and may all be gathered abundantly in 
those between the Crescent and Banks’ How, near Douglas. 
In a field on the summit of the cliffs above Derby Castle in 
the same neighbourhood, the beautiful and scarce wild flax 
Linum angustifolium grows in profusion. 

On the mountains few plants w r orthy of note occur. Listera 
cordata, an orchidaceous plant, has been found on Snaefell. 


APPENDIX S. 363 

Listera ovata is not uncommon. Viola lutea occurs with 
Gnaphalium dioicum ; also Empetrum nigrum; liubus saxa- 
tilis and Salix pentandra grow in Sulby Glen, at the mouth of 
which is the only locality where Verbascum Thapsus (Jacob’s 
ladder) has yet been met with apparently wild. 

In moorlands, both on the mountains and near the sea, the 
curious Hyperium elodes is very abundant. Anagallis tenella, 
the prettiest of pimpernels, is common in such places, especially 
beside springs. Rubus Koehleri is not uncommon among our 
brambles on a clayey soil. 

On the limestone near Castletown the plant most worthy of 
notice is the scarce Erodium maritimum. It is very abundant 
near Scarlet. (Enanthe pimpinelloides occurs in wet places 
near the sea. 

Most of the plants noted as growing on the slate sea cliffs 
occur also on the limestone rocks by the shore. The henbane, 
Hyoscyamus niger, grows at Poolvash. 

The sandy tract of the north furnishes several interesting 
plants. Convolvulus Soldanella ornaments the sea-side near 
Ballaugh. Salsola Kali, Cafcile maritima, Polygonum Ran, 
Arenaria peploides , and various species of Atriplex are com¬ 
mon on the shores. On the grassy summits of the sandy 
brows bounding them may be found Cerastium tetrandrum, 
Sagina maritima, Myosotis Collina, Car ex arenaria, Phleum 
arenarium, Triticum loliaceum and Vicia lathyroides: Ceras¬ 
tium arvense and Lepidium Smithii occur in the sandy fields 
in several localities (also near Castletown). The rare Sinapis 
Monensis is found expanded in the sand, and sending out long 
peduncles bearing bright yellow flowers, through a great part 
of the north, especially near Ramsey and Jurby. It occurs also 
on the sand-hills near Douglas, and may be gathered in the 
grounds of Castle Mona. Orobanche major occurs near Ramsey. 

A curious tetragonal variety of the eyebright, Euphrasia 
officinalis, and a peculiar form of Poly gala, apparently distinct 
from Polygala vulgaris, and probably identical with Polygala 
oxyptera, are frequent in sandy fields near Ballaugh. Stachys 

r 2 


364 


APPENDIX T. 


ambigua is frequent in the damper parts of the sandy districts 
of the north, and Scirpus maritimus occurs in pools in Andreas. 
Glaux maritima is frequent in wet places near the shore, both 
in the north and near Castletown. Mentha pulegium , the 
pennyroyal, grows in many places where there are marl pits. 
In the peat bogs we find Alisma ranunculoides, Sparganium 
simplex and Lycopus europceus. 

In many places on all soils we find Hypericum androscemum , 
Rosa spinosissima and tomentosa, Rubus carpinifolius, Sedum 
anglium, Cotyledon umbilicus and Lamium intermedicum. 

Our most striking ferns are the very rare and beautiful 
Adiantum Capillus Veneris, which has been gathered at Glen 
Meay, and in caves at Santon ; and the handsome Osmunda 
regalis , which grows in many places throughout the island, 
but is especially abundant and very luxuriant in the peat hogs 
of the north. Aspidium Thalypterus , Polypodium dryopteris 
Botrychium lunaria occur in many places. 

Among common English plants very rare in the Isle of Man, 
the dead nettle, Lamium album , and the black nightshade, 
Solanum nigrum , may be mentioned. 

Some scarce plants occur which appear to have been intro¬ 
duced either accidentally or by design. Such are Reseda fru- 
ticulosa, which grows near Castletown, and on the wall of the 
Rectory at Ballaugh; Gnaphalium margaritaceum , which 
occurs on hedges in Andreas; Onopordum Acanthium (the 
great thistle) near Ramsey; Foeniculum vulgare , not rare near 
houses; and Melilotus leucantlia , occasional and apparently 
introduced with corn. Erysimum cheiranthoides has been met 
with on the road between Ramsey and Kirk Michael, and Cala- 
mintha Nepeta in the same district. 

T. Page 253. 

The following Tables have been compiled from the Journals 
kept at the Point of Ayre Lighthouse in 57° 27' N. lat., 4° 20' W. 
long., elevated 106 feet above the medium level of the sea, and 
from that at Calf of Man Lower Lighthouse, lat. 54° 5' N., 



APPENDIX T 


365 


4° 46' W. long., at 275 feet above the sea. In consequence of the 
elevation and exposure of the points at which the observations were 
made, the mean temperature is determined somewhat lower than 
the reality. 


Table I. — An Average of Twenty Years, from 1825—44 inclusive. 


POINT OF AYRE 

Averages for periods of five 
years each. 

T hermometer. 

Barometer. 

Rain- 

gauge. 

Wet 

and 

cloudy 

days. 

Clear 

days. 

9 A.M. 

9 P.M. 

9 A.M. 

9 P.M. 

From 1825-29 inclusive 
From 1830-34 inclusive 
From 1835-39 inclusive 
From 1840-44 inclusive 

Average for 20 years, \ 
from 1825-44 inclusive J 

51-789 

50-663 

48-240 

48-748 

50-438 

49-720 

47- 647 

48- 056 

29-878 

29-868 

29-843 

29-766 

29-878 

29-864 

29-833 

29-617 

23-77 

27- 43 
29-07 

28- 11 

155 

299 

347 

312 

210 

66 

18 

53 

49-860 

48-965 

29-739 

29798 

27-09 

278 

87 

CALF OF MAN. 

From 1825-29 inclusive 
From 1830-34 inclusive 
From 1835-39 inclusive 
From 1840-44 inclusive 

Average for 20 years,! 
from 1825-44 inclusive J 

49’863 

49-397 

47*297 

47*999 

49-253 

49-145 

47- 271 

48- 182 

29-669 

29-605 

29-507 

29-454 

29-672 

29-606 

29-502 

29-682 

19-78 

25-04 

23-93 

24-253 

124 

186 

269 

247 

241 

179 

96 

118 

48-691 

48-463 

29-558 

29-615 

23-25 

226 

139 


Hence we obtain mean annual temperature for the whole island, 
from 1825-44 inclusive, 48*995, or nearly 49° Fahrenheit = 9*39 
Centigrade. Mean annual fall of rain, 25*17 inches. Clear 
days, 113. Wet and cloudy days, 252. 

The following Table gives a comparative view of the tempe¬ 
rature of the Isle of Man and some other portions of Europe, as 
stated by Baron Humboldt in his ‘ Cosmos.’ The scale used is 
the Centigrade. 

Table II. 


Places. 

Year. 

Winter. 

Spring. 

Sum¬ 

mer. 

Autumn. 

Lati¬ 

tude. 

Height 

above 

sea. 

Isle of Man . 

O 

9 

39 

o / 

5 53 

O 

7 

/ 

9 

o / 

13 16 

o 

10 

/ 

71 

o / 

54 12 


Dublin . 

9 

5 

4 6 

8 

4 

15 3 

9 

8 

53 23 

0 

Berlin . 

8 

6 

0 

6 

8 

1 

17 

5 

8 

6 

52 31 

16 

Bordeaux . 

13 

9 

6 

1 

13 

4 

21 

7 

14 

4 

44 50 

4 

Strasburg. 

9 

8 

1 

2 

10 

0 

18 

1 

10 

0 

48 35 

75 













































366 


APPENDIX T 



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APPENDIX T 


367 


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49- 300 

48-437 

50- 335 

48*919 

47-053 

47-278 

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50-198 

49- 847 

48-704 

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pH 

pH 

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05 03 03 

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C. stands for Calm in the above table, and V. for Variable. 



































































Table IV .—Average Monthly Meteorological Table, from Observations taken at the Calf of Man and Point of 

Ay re for a period of Seventeen Years, from 1831 to 1847 inclusive. 


368 


APPENDIX T 



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374 


APPENDIX T. 



Table V.— Table of Mean Monthly and Annual Temperatures for a 
period of Twenty-five Years, from 1823 to 1847 inclusive. 



Calf of Man. 

Point of Ayre. 

Temperature for 

flip wbnlp TslanrL 

Total 
mean In- 
sul. temp. 
1823-47, 
Fahr. 


Average 

1823-30. 

Average 

1831-47. 

Average 

1823-30. 

Average 

1831-47. 




1823-30. 

1831-47. 

December 

43*768 

45*083 

44-931 

45*652 

44*349 

44*029 


January ... 

40*161 

41*120 

41*493 

40*845 

40*827 

40*982 


February... 

41*327 

40*567 

42*323 

40*929 

41*825 

40*739 


Winter "1 
temp. J 

41*752 

42*257 

42*918 

42*475 

42*364 

41*583 

41*953 

March. 

42*675 

40*318 

44*088 

43*277 

43*381 

42*382 


April . 

44*712 

44947 

46*927 

45*112 

45*819 

45*031 


May . 

50*028 

47*469 

51*784 

50*488 

50*916 

49*884 


Spring \ 
temp. / 

45*805 

44*245 

47*600 

46*292 

46*705 

45*766 

46*236 

June . 

54*367 

53*617 

56*370 

54*601 

55*868 

54*043 


July . 

56*957 

55*335 

58*466 

57*380 

57*711 

56*357 


August ... 

57*320 

56*713 

58*335 

58*194 

52*827 

57*357 


Summer 1 
temp. J 








56*215 

55*222 

57*724 

56*692 

55*469 

55*919 

55*694 

September 

54*335 

54*709 

56*996 

55*659 

55*665 

55*206 


October ... 

51*824 

50*891 

52*976 

51*001 

52*400 

50*691 


November 

47*433 

46*384 

48*489 

46*030 

47*961 

45*707 


Autumnal 1 
temp... J 

51*197 

50*661 

52*817 

50*897 

52*013 

50*535 

51*274 


Hence the mean annual temperature of the Isle of Man, taken for a 
period of 25 years, from 1823 to 1847 inclusive, is 48*789 Fahrenheit 
= 9°*27 Centigrade thermometer. 

































Table VI .—The following Table shows the Coldest Day in each of Twenty-one successive Years , with the 
Temperature at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., together with the state of the Weather on those Days at the Calf 
of Man and Point of Ay re. 


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the Calf of Man and Point of Ay re. 


3 76 


APPENDIX T. 


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Printed by Richard and John E. Taylor, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 









































fc V 

























































SUtck Hr.ll 


/Trn&er' 


Arrogan 


ATHOlAw RIDOE 


A "7t| \ 

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SHNAHAWIN 


Balia- Clague 


FLESHWICK BAY 


.CREGG1K 


COLBY 


GRAMMAR 


k> Men ci ow 


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College 


White St' 


Balia Gawne 


an^o Hill 


Balia i'agean 


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'/Kerttrau.^h li 


it 

WIND MILL 


PORT EH1N 


CASTLETOWN 


Balia' 


Y*7> 

SCARLET HEAD 


BERWICK BAY 


STACK of 


SOUTHERN LIMESTONE BASIN 




Scale, One Inch to the Mi/e. 


• >tiick 
I \ 


‘ , i e Bro IVilb-am St Strand. 

























































I KEY NA LHAA 


\ Old Bed Sandstone 


K. Sanlon • I 


limber 


Cro*lcrh 

ArroSan Hoar 


.). Carbonifonns Limestone 
4 Boulder (luv . 


mJk Hih 


BRIDGE / 


Arrogaii Bei* 


ALLASALLA 

&. ( 


li.ill.i link '1^, 


I!n,shen 


alluvium with raised beaches 


CD a Greenstone 


Balia Claque 


FLESH WICK BAY 


1 13Sr/i Traf.> . 

L ... I -V Trap Titfj 


GC, IN 


hrijirr. 


\AKBO 


hallow 

; p Jf 


ALEW7 


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COLBY 


f DERRY JWOPEN 


FAIRY HILL 


311NES 


White Stinie 


TVallYCivwnc 


GRAMMAli 


/.Balia lai>( 


ango UilL 


BRADA HEAD 


Bowlins 


/C-l'I-l'H 

i :/ r 


Keutrau^h 


PORT ERIN 


ASTLE TOR N 


Balladool 


LANGNES 


.STRA.YOIIALI, ^ 


I’OOLYASTI 


TORT IE MURRAY’ 


[OUSE 


Trap Tuff 


Hills 


SCARLET HEAD 


BERWICK RAY 


LAN ONE SS PI 


Chasms 


STACK OF SCARLET 


SOUTHERN LIMESTONE BASIN 

of the 

I 3 Ii 


SPANISH HEAD 


jHATf 


CALF OF MAN 


Linos of'Seelir/i 


zzzyzz/ZZ zzz/ //zr 


REV? ('EMMINI 

















































































The pei/nt 


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TT TXT T\ tlx. t*' 


Cranston. 


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«. . 


St Johns CfutficJ 


Kirk Lennon 


<•<•11 1 as 


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/ Middle 

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Spa/oret 


C ,il fa of Man 


77,/.v Map taken from Speed's History of Great Britain e. vhibits ancient lakes both in 
the Horth &• South of ‘the Island winch have since been drained . 






































































































Plate V 































GROUND PLAN 

of Thf SS//OR£ frotn 

BIONALDSWAY T© COSHNAHAWBN 


Arroi 


Fault? u'tfiv Aniu'htmlv 


l u u>j 


(ist 

K^xuddswayH oi!8P 
pL^aeEhis g 

L_ : - Jftnlrj fater . Via ^ 









































































































' 





























* 

























































































Sat Mirth Hotel' 


oax rxs 


sue Tim FROM THE MFJLL HILLS TO LAW&NESS. 



/ ft Z ft / 


/? ana/? 


cl /? 


SECTION FROM ELACKHILL TO S TAMIL T ME A 3 . 


IV 


GROUND FLAX OF A TRAP DYKE 
on the Xortli Vest side of 
LANGNESS. 

30 Yards to the TnrA 



3 7 3'3 


ft ft ft 


SECTHW XEAR THE STACK OF SCARLET. 

East and West Magnetic. 




VI . 


Scale SO Idl'cts to 1 fticJi . 

SECT COX AT TEE CALF ISLET 


FroinVortb to South.. 



02. srenfi "by Hoeve BxotLars. 







































































































































































































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y 



































, 
















&MCTIOW FROM TMJE MOUNTAIN'S TO JTTMMY JPOINT. 



on stone Heeve Brothers 
























































London, June , 1848. 


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THE FOSSIL MAMMALS AND BIRDS, By Professor Owen. 

U. 11s. 6d. 

A GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, By 
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* “ This book ought to be largely circulated, not only on account of its scientific merits, but 
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about fishes—-the political economist, the epicure, the merchant, the man of science, the 
angler, the poor, the rich. We hail the appearance of this book as the dawn of a new era in 
the Natural History of England .”—Quarterly Review, No. 116 . 


JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. 










BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 


THE EXCELLENCY OF THE LITURGY 

OF 

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

A LECTURE 

ON 

SET FORMS OF PRAYER. 

WITH AN APPENDIX; 

CONTAINING 

A HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER AND OF 
THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE BIBLE. 

SECOND EDITION. 

Price Is. By Post Is. 4c?. 


JOHN MYBREA, DOUGLAS, ISLE OF MAN. 









AUG 16 fa 







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